It would be very unfair to blame captain Mark Noble for yesterday’s defeat but eyebrows were raised when he was named in the starting eleven against Chelsea.
We have lost every game Noble has started this season so it is becoming a bad omen.
Noble started in the first game of the Premier League against Newcastle in our worst performance of the season and we lost two-nil.
Dropped from the league game Noble against Everton in the EFL cup: We lose 4-1 in an awful performance.
Noble started again for his only third game of the season against Chelsea last night and we lose 3-0.
Overall Mark has made just eight appearances all season with cameo roles against Wolves, Leicester City, Sheffield United, Aston Villa and Leeds United.
The 33-year-old has got just six months remaining on his West Ham United contract with no guarantee of anything other than a pay as you play deal and associated backroom clause.
The stats show it must be time to thank a great servant and move on.
“Lies, damned lies and statistics”.
Simon has it right. We didn’t lose because of Noble.
How many games have we won playing 4-4-2? How many games has Noble be on for that formation? 3-4-3 doesn’t work for him, 4-4-2 doesn’t work for Cresswell. Overall, better a solid Cressy than a solid Noble.
He was awful again . Give one of the youngsters like Coventry or Holland a game . They coiuld not be worse and might just save us a lot of money .
I thought bring in Mark to allow Rice to get further up the pitch was a bold move; it led to a decent but ruled-out goal. I saw Mark make some decent passes. However, we were often really slow getting forward again, so Chelsea were able to pack their defence. Even if we had lobbed it to Seb, he’s no Vardy or Antonio. Having to rely on Cress and Vlad to lob it in for contested headers was not that effective when they had tall guys to match Oggie and Soucek.
If Rice is staying (let’s hope so) he needs to be captain whenever he’s on the pitch. I appreciate the respect afforded Mark but if Dec stays we need to change the guard – think he’s better at marshalling the defence and his younger legs give us more pace.
Sadly the ‘up and bsck’ role is now beyond him, as is 90 minutes it seems. He must change to DM and win it and pass in a sub role. His moon is waning but we all have a liking for him. For his sake, save him.
He was crap, and hasn’t been a premier League player for nearly 2 years.
Everything we did failed because he wasn’t playing the number 10 role in any way properly.
Yesterday was like playing with 10. 9 if you consider the waste of space up top.
Good observation, indeed. However, truth lies in last night’s personal stats against Chelsea. Did he perform or didn’t he?
In Lanzini’s absence, I dont think Noble did that bad. Just because we lost, does not mean we just go for Mark’s jugular? Let’s try to be reasonable folks.
What we did have, were atrocious performances again from Haller and Fornals. Even the und 23’s would have been unhappy with them. And Oggie had the wrong boots on?
Plus Mark’s quite diplomacy for the 2 goals ruled out, did not help. Pics show the ref was totally wrong.
And once again Moye’s subs were totally off. Said B should have been brought on half time. Yarmo should have gone to the wing, and Jarrod into the centre-forward for Haller. When you chase a point or 3, you do something drastic to get it. Not conservative Moyes, unfortunately.
Well, once again we go on hoping and believing. Coyi. God bless West Ham.
Am sure there will be a new contract for him, have a feeling that by the end of February we will have lost Rice so they will need someone to steady the ship.
My thoughts as well…There was a reason for playing Noble last night..And the only one i can think of is Rice is gone and we need fully fit Noble to stand in until we replace him.
Think it’s more likely he played because Lanzini wasn’t fit given the advanced role which he played last season. No chance of Dec moving