Matt Jarvis heaped praise on West Ham midfielder Mark Noble after being asked about the club’s start to the season.
The former Hammers winger claimed that the club captain transformed the team when he was playing and implied that Manuel Pellegrini had a no brainer decision when it comes to deciding whether to play him.
Jarvis claimed that the Hammers “tick” along a lot better with Noble on the pitch and pointed out the Englishman knew the club through and through.
“Mark Noble is playing every week and you can see the transformation he makes on them as a team,” said Jarvis on Football Centre (11:54, October 30th, Sky Sports News).
“He knows the club through and through so it’s a no brainer that once he is back in, the club starts to tick along a lot better.”
OPINION
Jarvis may have said the blindingly-obvious when it came to Noble, of course, he knows the club well, but it’s always nice to hear Mr.West Ham praised, as sometimes he gets overlooked. With Pellegrini’s squad containing show-stealing talents such as Andriy Yarmolenko as well as Felipe Anderson, it sometimes sees Noble’s less than glamorous work avoid praise. This is especially the case when you also consider that Noble’s midfield partner, Declan Rice, often ends up with the spotlight on him as his performances are mind-blowingly good when you consider he is only 20-years-old. Yet Noble has been as reliable as ever for the Hammers this season, so why shouldn’t he be spoken highly of? The 32-year-old has pulled his weight defensively by averaging 1.1 tackles per match across his eight league outings and he has shown he is capable of helping out the club’s attack as not only has he already contributed a goal to the cause, he has averaged 0.9 shots per game as well as 0.6 key passes (Source: WhoScored).
