Noble's Comments on Fans

Giant_Hammer

Twaddle? Twaddle? Informed twaddle I'll have you know young lady. ;lol

grey_til_I_dye

In the spirit of one of England's greatest pundits, Glenn Twaddle.

alderz

NE

I got them from squawka.com. They use Opta data.

http://www.squawka.com/players/mark-noble/stats

alderz

BTW that Premier League stats centre is amazing. I kind of wish I was still doing that blog

Moore_than_a_nick

MrsGrey said:

NEoldiron said:

So "a lot of people don't understand the game".
How patronising is that?
;hmm

I took it to mean ' don't understand what it's like to play in the PL', rather than something like 'don't know the rules'.

I am fully prepared to acknowledge that he knows more about it than me - and don't feel patronised by his comments at all.

Just my personal view.

I think that's a very generous interpretation, Mrs Grey, which speaks wonderfully about you as a person. Personally I think saying that a lot of people who now go to football don't understand the game, and then expanding on this by saying that they only look at moments in a game and think a few stepovers makes a good performance, indicates he wasn't just saying people don't understand what it is to play in the EPL. It is a more scathing attack on the way in which "fans" or football viewers appreciate the nature of the game and what a good performance over 90 mins looks like. I actually think he is correct - this superficial viewing and appreciation of the game is probably a function of a generation who have come to know football more as a video game than a real game and who is brought up on youtube highlights rather than watching 90 minute matches or even MotD.

But I think to point this out in the context of increasing fan criticism of your performance rather than just accepting a portion of the blame and letting your playing do the talking is not the right response for anyone, especially our captain. So I'm afraid he goes down in my appreciation as a result. I think the fact that so many of us on this site have dropped him from our suggested teams for the next match (and recent ones) is an indication that it is not just the ignorant fans that feel the captain of Senegal and the leading candidate for HotY might just be a better CM partnership for the moment.

Having said that, if we were to replace Payet's super-sized shirt in the OS with anyone else's, for me it would be our no. 16's, for what he has done and what he means for the club.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

alderz said:

Ok, so I took at a little look at Noble's stats this season compared to last.

Fewer tackles attempted per game, smaller tackle success rate, fewer interceptions per game, lower % forward passes, fewer passes altogether, fewer chances created per game, fewer shots per game.

Greater pass accuracy (fairly negligible difference).

Part of a team that was flying last year and one that has had to overcome multiple issues this season

Makes sense to me

alderz

IZWT

Not disputing that, I'm just pointing out that the suggestion that his form is worse is not untrue. I don't think he's the only one to have a poorer season by a long stretch

baracks_a_hammer

Here's the thing

Last season many of our players were lifted considerably due to the presence of a world class talisman. Noble was one, cresswell and Collins were further examples.

This season the talisman has gone (he went in spirit quite a while before he physically left). So to me there seemed to be lack of a similar presence to lift the side. Morale and team ethic may be strong off the field but this is not translating into positive outcomes on the field for the large part.

This is where you look to the captaincy qualities of the likes of Lucas Neill and Nolan, neither of whom were technically great as footballlers but certainly had the ability to lift those around them. I just don't think Noble is that same type of personality. His captaincy is coming under more and more pressure.

That's one of the reasons I'd be over the moon if we somehow managed to sign, say Joe Hart.

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

How many times last season when Payet was of a positive mind did we haul ourselves back into games that this season we've either not and been crushed or have and still let it slip in the end?

Plenty.......

He may of been toxic in the camp when he came back from the Euros but boy could he play and did he work well for us, the finishing the free kicks the assists.

Typical WHU luck that we end up having to cash in on the best thing we'd had for over a decade.

alderz

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard said:

Typical WHU luck that we end up having to cash in on the best thing we'd had for over a decade.

You sure about that?

TwistandShout

Interesting Slavs column this week:

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/mark-noble-lives-and-breathes-and-we-ll-miss-him-as-player-and-captain-writes-slaven-bilic-a3492161.html


(Posted here as it is mainly about Noble)

Yeoldhammer

interesting title for the link, sounds like he is in a coma or something just from that headline.

Pearces_Left_Foot

Noble plays better with Kouyate alongside him , when all the play is going through him he tends to slow things down too much but when Kouyate is there he can drive the play forward better and also has the legs to help cover .

Slaven_Cups_His_Beard

Alderzzzz

;clap

claretandbluesky

I think one of the issues is that a Captain possesses certain qualities that have a greater longevity than their physical abilities and so they become harder to displace in the team for team mates because of their holding the captaincy.

I also think Nobles comments are defensive of himself and understandably so as any leader or Captain must possess self belief and if he allowed that to be eroded he would not be able to lead.

A similar situation to Kevin Nolan a couple of years back, still great as a captain but the legs had gone in comparison to his highly impressive early career. I will stress I do not feel Noble so far down the road at this point and that he still has a big part to play, I don't however think he should have a guaranteed place if fit.

Ultimately I am a Noble fan as all teams need their home grown fans and he is ours through and through.