‘It was like playing with 10-and-a-half men’ – McAvennie slams Noble in West Ham win v Wolves
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie was unimpressed by Mark Noble’s performance for West Ham in the 3-2 defeat to Wolves on Monday night, claiming the captain looked “lost” in David Moyes’ midfield.
Noble, 33, was handed his fifth Premier League start of the season at Molineux due to Declan Rice’s injury leaving him on the sidelines for the coming weeks.
Before the trip to Wolves, the Hammers had failed to win every league fixture Noble had started.
However, after exploding into an impressive three-goal lead before half-time, West Ham managed to see out a late resurgence from Wolves and earn a huge three points that took them back into the Premier League’s top-four.
While most fans appeared to be happy with Nobles’ performance, McAvennie took exception to the midfielder’s inability to keep up with the pace of the game and failure to make tackles.
Speaking exclusively to West Ham Zone, McAvennie said: “Unfortunately for Nobes he’ll come in and do well at certain times but he can’t play one or two times. He can’t play that guy any more. The speed at which they break is incredible.
“I look at Noble and I can’t criticise him because he’s been such a good servant to West Ham but he looked lost the other night. He was a yard slower than everyone else.
“That’s to be expected but he didn’t even get close to tackles or anything like that. If you’re sitting in there and getting close to tackles and letting everyone run around you, I’m ok with that. But he wasn’t getting close to the tackles.
“It was like playing with 10-and-a-half men.
“He’s not fit enough anyway because when you get to that age you’ve got to play at least once a week to keep your fitness up. Obviously, when you’re not playing, you’re a wee bit slower than everyone else.
“If they keep him in there for a few games, they’ll get him back as long as they’ve got that pace in and around him.”
According to stats by Wyscout, Noble won just two of the six defensive duels he was involved in on Monday night. However, while he failed to shine in that regard, he did manage to make eight recoveries and five interceptions to help keep a handle on things in the middle of the park.
Noble also completed 89 per cent of his passes and all three of his passes into the final third were accurate.
It wasn’t an outstanding performance by the Hammers captain but it was one that gives a bit of hope that we can still pick up results while Rice is injured.
In other West Ham news, Keith Hackett expects an FA investigation into the handbags at the end of the win over Wolves.