West Ham United missing leadership qualities of Mark Noble – Tony Cottee
Tony Cottee believes West Ham United are missing the leadership qualities of Mark Noble.
The 35-year-old retired from football at the end of the last summer and is now a part working as the club’s Sporting Director.
Cottee, while talking to Daily Star, believes that the Hammers are lucky to have an apt replacement for Noble in the form of Declan Rice.
“Yes of course we have missed Mark Noble,” he said. “When I played in the 80’s and 90’s the captain was the captain on the pitch and didn’t have to do much else.
“They would liaise with the manager of course but your job was on the field. Nowadays, you’ve got jobs off the field, sorting new players out making sure they are ok, community work, charity work and then go on the pitch and lead.
“Mark was doing that for 20 years and he’s now not there, so it was always going to have an impact on the dressing room.
“But they have got a wonderful replacement in Declan, we all know how good he is. Maybe he is feeling more responsibility on his shoulders, but he did it last year.
“By his high standards, he’s had a relatively slow start to the season, I’m sure he’d be the first to admit it.
“You can’t explain it sometimes as a player though, you can have a brilliant pre-season but then be awful for the first few games in the league.
“It works the other way as well, you just don’t know, sometimes it takes a while to get going. There is no doubting the quality of Declan as captain.”
Important player
West Ham entered this season hoping to improve what they did in the previous campaign where they finished seventh in the league table and also played in the semi-finals of the UEFA Europa League.
However, their season started in a poor manner and they are now placed in the relegation zone after seven matchdays with just four points.
One of the reasons for the team’s dip in form this season has been the performance of the midfield where in particular Rice has been found wanting time and again.
As the season is about to resume after a two-week international break, time is running out for the Hammers to resurrect their campaign and therefore, the fans as well as the manager David Moyes will be hoping that his star performers like the England international will return to their best form, sooner rather than later.
Rice is a West Ham academy product and has represented the Irons in 204 matches across all competitions where he has managed to score 10 goals and provided 11 assists in the process [Transfermarkt].