Mark Noble: West Ham shouldn’t lose 3-0 to Brighton with all the talent available

EXCLUSIVE: Club captain tells Standard Sport of his determination to bounce back at Wembley
Ken Dyer25 October 2017

In the 13 years since Mark Noble made his senior debut for West Ham, he has seen five managers arrive and depart and — if the intelligence is accurate — it will be six if it all goes wrong for Slaven Bilic at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

During that time, the Canning Town-born midfielder and now club captain has suffered and survived many lows and some highs and you can see, as he sits in an interview room at the club’s training ground, that the current predicament hurts him more than most.

Noble looks certain to play in West Ham’s Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham at Wembley on Wednesday after being forced to sit and suffer with the rest of the West Ham home faithful when he was a substitute for last Friday’s 3-0 defeat by Brighton.

What you see is what you get with Noble. Born and bred in the East End, he tells it how it is, as some of his club-mates will testify after he called a players’ meeting earlier this week.

“We did have a meeting but it wasn’t just me who said stuff,” said Noble.

“Listen, even if we didn’t have a manager at all, the talent in this club should mean that we don’t lose 3-0 to Brighton. What shape we play, what tactics we employ, that’s almost immaterial.

“You can lose games, of course you can, but whether Slaven [Bilic, the manager] is here or not, whether Sir Alex Ferguson was our boss or Jose Mourinho, we shouldn’t be getting beat 3-0 by Brighton.”

West Ham missed Noble on Friday, for the battling qualities he brings to the side. If ever his manager needed some spirit and character in his team, it’s right now.

“I’ve been lucky in my career because I’ve not had to sit on the bench a lot but sitting there on Friday was hard because you can’t affect anything,” he said.

“Do I think that, if we had scored when we were on top, it would have been an entirely different game? Yes, I do but you have to score.

In Pictures | West Ham vs Brighton | 20/10/2017

1/24

“Defensively Brighton were set up well and they’re good from set-plays. If I’m Brighton’s manager and I’m coming to West Ham and they are struggling, what is the perfect scenario? Score an early goal from a set-play, quieten the crowd, defend and hit us on the counter. They had the perfect game plan.”

Noble, 30, understands the modern game and the sort of pressure a manager comes under if their team loses a few games.

“I try and be as honest as I can without shooting myself in the foot for saying things I really mean but the way it is now, pundits probably don’t get on the television if they’re not controversial,” he said.

“A lot of them have played the game, so they will know what it feels like to be criticised. Once you’re in front of the camera or behind the microphone, though, you’re fine.

“Once there is the momentum of suggesting managers could get the sack, it’s not normally long before it happens. You’ve just seen that with Ronald Koeman.

“Five or six years ago, would he have had more time? Definitely — but football is much more of a business now.

"The first year was a dream for Slaven because everyone was playing well but the past two years have been really tough for him.

“You are going to lose games but it’s how you lose them. If we had won on Friday night, nothing gets said, we’ve lifted off and Slaven gets a break for a couple of weeks.

“If we lose after that, though, it comes back again and I think that, once that box is open, then it’s very hard to close it again.”

One of the accusations aimed at Bilic and his team is that they lack fitness, after statistics revealed they are bottom of the Premier League in both sprints and distances covered.

“Do I think we’re fit enough? Yes,” said Noble. “We train hard but sometimes you have really got to want to run to do it.

Noble is set to start Wednesday's EFL Cup tie against Tottenham
West Ham United via Getty Images

“When you’re 2-0 up and you lose possession, you sprint back. So much of it is down to confidence — it’s really down to really wanting to make that run.

“This cup match against Spurs is probably a good game to play at the moment. If I’m honest, the game against Crystal Palace on Saturday is more important.

“We need to put Friday behind us as soon as possible, though. Spurs are flying at the minute, though, and we are going to have to be at it. At the end of the day, we need to fight and wear the shirt with pride.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in