Never far from the decision making at West Ham, legend Mark Noble has taken great strides with the academy players under his wing and, along with manager Graham Potter has finally established the ‘pathway’ to get young players into the senior squad.
Speaking to NBC Sports in the USA, ‘Mr West Ham’ Mark Noble spoke directly about the Irons troubled year, and where he feels West Ham have arrived with Graham Potter’s first couple of months completed.
‘It’s been a tough nine months. Moyes was fantastic for us and we then went with Julen and we were hoping to crack on with him, but it wasn’t meant to be. Graham has come in now and everyone seems to have settled down and the place is very happy.”
In respect of Potter’s management style, Noble continued: “He’s a real people’s person, you can go into his office and have a chat with him and I get on great with him personally. I think the players have responded [well].”
Having steadied the ship, Graham Potter still has to focus on the creativity problems -partially created by selecting nine defensive players -evident against Newcastle.
West Ham fans will be looking anxiously at the team sheet against Everton tomorrow to check that the manager does have the ambition to set up in a more attacking manner.
Parking the bus was Moyes’ downfall , often with seventy minutes of defending until the side inevitably conceded: With a slight sense of apprehension I keep everything crossed that the Hammers don’t continue down that route with another ‘nine behind the ball’ selection for the Everton fixture. Graham Potter does seem to me to be a little more cerebral and a little less stubborn than Moyes. We shall see!
Let us hope the similarities end tomorrow and Potter selects a more attacking formation to continue the team’s progress for which West Ham’s Sporting Director Mark Noble has shown such high regard.
