Monday 11 May 2009

Noble For England


How good was Mark Noble on Saturday? In a generally shabby performance, Noble and Collison stood out as two genuine diamonds amongst so much paste. Despite being up against a very good Liverpool midfield, both held their own in a highly commendable fashion.

Noble's form has been patchy for much of the season and some have questioned his right to be in the team. We forget, however, that he is still only 21, a slightly bigger babe in a team of babies in recent weeks. Fans have rightfully been excited about Tomkins, Stanislas and Collison, but it was Noble who carried the battle to Liverpool and, until the arrival of Collison, did so almost single-handedly. And remember, in the last home game against Chelsea he had missed a penalty, something which might have caused some players to hide. Not Noble!

He does have some limitations. The pace isn't there, as shown when he declined to burst down the right hand side of the Liverpool box, but he has so many qualities as a midfield player and is older than his years. Fabio cannot have failed to be impressed: Noble isn't ready for England yet but he has surely been marked down as one for the future.

Can he play alongside Parker though? That is the big question. If not, and his better performances have been when Parker is not in the side, then I know who I would sell. Noble is young and fit and has Claret and Blue blood; Parker is good but not brilliant. Should City bid £12million in the summer it would be a no brainer for me.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

what are you smoking??
Letting Parker go? Are you nuts.
DDM, Tristan need to get out.

Anonymous said...

Mmm no brainer, that sum's it up

Anonymous said...

Talentless hack.

tubs said...

Give it a rest will you? Noble has been average this season with a few good displays thrown in. So one good display makes him England quality now does it? I like Noble and hope he can progress further with the club but let's not get carried away eh? And Parker has been probably our most consistant performing midfielder, far more effective than Noble this season, to even consider selling him it ridiculous. Typical rubbish from this site to be honest.

Anonymous said...

Point of fact.Noble is 22

Anonymous said...

Hammersfan never gets anyone praising his articles, he only gets bile. Well it's dead easy to rile people and really hard to earn praise, any idiot can rile someone, and Hammersfan is just that kind of idiot.

Anonymous said...

lets get it str8 that gerrard wasnt that great againt us anyway! apart from them goals he didnt stand out above any1 else

Anonymous said...

Hammersfan i actually like your articles. I do not know what some people expect you write, perhaps "Tottenham are a fantastic team who have surpassed their expectations", or maybe "West Ham have played brilliantly this whole season, no-one has put a foot wrong". I think alot of people do need to wake up and smell the coffee, and if you do disagree with some of the opinions, go about it in a cool, constructive manner, trust me it makes you seem alot more respectable and less of a loose with nothing better to do.

Denbighammer said...

Sorry but Noble needs to produce more at both ends of the field for me. He had a good game Saturday, no doubts but performances like that have been too few and far between this season. I agree that his lack of pace is a major problem. I'd like to see him and Collison given a run together in centre mid for the final two matches. Kovac looks ok and would be an ok addition to the squad but we need to give youth a chance while we have the opportunity. Noble CAN be a good player for us, personally I feel he will always be slightly short of the Gerrard, Lampard level central midfielder but I see no reason why he can't be at the level of Parker, Bullard, Murphy, Cahill etc and do a good job for us for many years to come.

Anonymous said...

Mark Noble, hopefully he'll stay at West Ham his whole career, reminds me weirdly of Scholes

Hammersfan said...

Cheers Anon 2101. Sadly having to introduce moderator due to pornographic comments and playground pathetic insults. Hopefully the morons will slide back down their holes and I can allow free comments again.

Den, I was impressed on Saturday but one swallow and all that...

Anonymous said...

This is the blog's statement -

There is no orthodoxy here. I may disagree absolutely with the point you are making but if you submit something worthy of posting, I will post it!

Cut the insults guys, make your point and invite debate!

- rich, that's just rich. When the guy that writes the blog is the most insulting person on here!

Anonymous said...

Cheers Anon 2101. Sadly having to introduce moderator due to pornographic comments and playground pathetic insults. Hopefully the morons will slide back down their holes and I can allow free comments again.

I know you wrote anon 2101 yourself because it was so blatantly an attack and response to what I said, using the same trick that I used - I am very happy that you have to moderate now, (you're the moderator of course, don't pretend that you got someone else doing it for you, like your the bleedin Daily Mail or something, LOL as you would say!) sounds like it galls you that this no longer a free comments forum, so great, and yes I am a moron, like yourself but no I won't slide down my hole and I will wait and wait and wait until I see this is a free post again, as it should be, if you're willing to treat a blog properly and not spout bile yourself - freedom of speech for ALL you hack, not just yourself, now you really have shown your true dictator colours just as I suspected - apologize about the comments you made about Liverpool and you can get your blog back to the way you want it without me and others attacking you, I feel I have as much right to attack you as you feel you have to attack Liverpool. Don't pick a fight unless you can't see it through.

Hammersfan said...

i HAVE CARRIED YOUR POST BECAUSE YOU ARE CLEARLY MAD! I DID NOT WRITE 2101 MYSELF YOU MORON!

Anonymous said...

As they say in Liverpool mate, 'Calm down, calm down!' another stereotype but funny in this context for you - I got a whole line of CAPITALS, does that mean you're shouting, yes I am mad, don't mess with the mad. apologise.

Hammersfan said...

No, I had capital lock on in error as the lower case i at the start shows. You couldn't get me angry! You do over rate yourself mate.

Hammersfan said...

See the way Noble is pointing at the headline? Clever eh?