Mark Noble’s inclusion in the West Ham starting lineup for the Hammers 4-0 thumping of Norwich City on Saturday raised some eyebrows as David Moyes seemed to be employing a defensive setup against a side bottom of the league.
It was anything but that though as the Hammers put the Canaries to the sword with an emphatic showing and the returning skipper was at the heart of a lot of good things on Saturday afternoon.
Noble, making his 499th West Ham appearance, had missed the win over Chelsea through injury and was on the substitutes bench for the draw at Newcastle and defeat to Burnley. Andriy Yarmolenko made way at Carrow Road for Noble’s return.
That allowed Jarrod Bowen to play in his preferred right wing slot, occupied by Yarmolenko against Burnley and the result was the £25million winger excelling once again in his favoured spot.
Noble, as we know, is a central midfielder by trade but for long spells in Norfolk at the weekend he was playing very advanced, almost in a number ten role. West Ham have plenty of players who can play there such as Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini, Jack Wilshere and Felipe Anderson, but Noble’s name doesn’t often crop up.
David Moyes was asked post-match about Noble’s position in the game and the manager said: “Well I wouldn’t out and out call it a [number] ten, we just asked him to play a bit more advanced than the other ones.
“We felt that today with the way Norwich were setting up, it was a good move. It is more to do with Mark Noble’s leadership, with the ball and without it, take responsibility and I thought he was as good as anyone today.”
It paid off for Moyes as Noble had two assists on the day, completed 50 of his 56 pass attempts, including five out of six long balls, and totalled eight key passes throughout the game.
It started off with a free kick delivered from the left hand side, right where Michail Antonio would have wanted it to leap above static Canaries defenders Ben Godfrey and Timm Klose to head down past Tim Krul to secure his second goal of the game on the stroke of half time.
Not long after the restart for the second half, Noble received the ball in midfield, turned and immediately heard the yell of Antonio, who timed his start to perfection as Jamal Lewis played the striker onside and Noble played the ball over the top into acres of space behind the Norwich backline.
Antonio produced a superb first touch only to be denied by Krul but the rebound fell kindly to the striker who looped a header over the line to effectively seal the three points as the Hammers took a 3-0 lead.
Noble wasn’t done as he played a key role in the build-up to the visitors fourth and final goal of the afternoon with another clever, clipped pass over the top in behind. This time, substitute Lukas Rupp was beaten all ends up by the pass to Ryan Fredericks, who shrugged off a lame attempt at a challenge from Rupp to cross for Antonio to tap home from a yard out.
Noble said post-match of Antonio’s performance: "He’s such a handful, no centre-half would want to play against him full stop. We know that sometimes he’s better running channels and getting the ball in behind, like for his third goal today, I didn’t see him but I heard his scream and I knew where he’d be.
"You can manage to play those balls in behind and it’s great for me because I know he’s going to run in behind. I’ve told him as soon as I get the ball to make sure you’re on your bike and today that worked out."
Moyes made a bit of a tactical gamble in playing Noble so far advanced, essentially in a playmaker role when he has other players who are probably more qualified to do that job. But 499 appearances means you can probably pull rank in those situations and Noble executed it to perfection on his return to the team.
