Tonka in his prime
Hammers former hero Ray Stewart has praised skipper Mark Noble’s performance against Wolves as “an excellent example of leadership.”
The former Irons defender went as far as to say he would have made him man of the match but for the performance of Jesse Lingard.
Claret and Hugh’s exclusive blogger explained: “I thought he did really well but should Declan be out for any length of time it’s going to be a problem for him and the manager.
“Any player can fill in to a problem position for the odd game – we all have now and again -but to ask him to do that continually for say the last eight games at his age at the end of a long and difficult season may be too much.
“At Mark’s age it gets more and more difficult. I’m not saying they have done, but the legs eventually go, and then you resort to bringing players down because there’s no other way.
“I saw it with Bill Bonds. It’s not the player’s fault – there’s just nothing he can do about it but in the circumstances we have at West Ham right now it’s going to be tricky for the manager.
“I believe he is going to have to come up with some alternatives over these vital games if Declan isn’t available.”
It’s a tough one , he actually did ok . Listen I love Nobes but can he perform the same against Leicester who are a better team than wolves . If not Soucek holding , Fornals & Benrhama or Masuaku on the left . It’s a big call and one DM needs to get right . Without Rice & Antonio , it’s going to be tough but why not keep winning the hard work pays off . Any news on how long Antonio is out for ?
COYI ⚒
I see Tonka did not agree with your match rating of 4 for noble which has now disappeared. Would have thought it would have been better to leave up the post (and justify) or change it after a rethink in the morning.
Otherwisee what is the point of having a comments section for us to interact with if we don’t agree you delete or don’t post the comments. You all do a GREAT service to west ham fans with the site but deleting comments where we don’t agree is a turn off for interaction.
I took it down because I don’t allow abuse of myself or anyone else. I would have thought by publishing this from Tonka proves I’m not as precious as some seem to think. By the way I told him I thought he was wrong and as a decent person he simply said: We can treat people’s views with respect. Noble was not very good in my view. He barely impacted the game when in possession and was targeted by Wolves in the second half when huge gaps appeared in the middlle. If you mean by interaction criticising one rating from something like 15 stories during the day I think we can live without it.YOur adviccE like all other is a gift which can be accepted or thrown away. Hope you understand.
Noble had a better than OK game. I watched him fairly carefully throughout. His passing was regularly better – more accurate, more positive and less likely to play his teamate into trouble – than and other West Ham player. Far from your “barely impacted”. He closed down space well in front of the back four. And as to “was targeted by Wolves” well that is a non-falsifiable hypothesis (unless you’ve spoken to the Wolves players) but it looked to me more like Wolves were trying to get Traore one on one with our FBs as their plan A, ather than playing through the middle. I agree that after Lingard, Noble was probably our MoM , and think your rating of 4 comes from some strange pit of spite against Noble. Of course he isn’t what he was 2 or 3 years ago, but he’s still a goodplayer, a great servant of the club and could be very important indeed in the run in. Time to get behind the time. Irons!!!
I feel the need to back you here Hugh. I thought Noble’s presence created gaps in the middle that aren’t there when Rice plays. His mistimed tackle on Traore before his cross for Wolves’ goal highlighted how slow he is. He has always been a good passer but 90% completion just highlights how many balls sideways he played. Anyone can pass 5/10 yards. Love the guy but in the team I’m not a fan and Monday highlighted it. He has a great touch and can pick a short pass but that isn’t what centre-mid is about; it’s about presence, reading the game and good tackling. Nobes doesn’t contribute those things unfortunately.
There is a caveat though. After a run of games he may lose some of that rust. It’s clearly not easy coming into a Premier League team having not completed 90 minutes all season, especially at 33, and perhaps his performances will pick up with more game time.