Noble is the the Premier League's marathon man

They are the marathon men of the Premier League, the players who put in the hard yards for their side. Some of them average more than 10km every game, a superb show of stamina in anyone’s book.
And, on the eve of the London Marathon, when 36,000 runners will pound the 26.2 miles around the capital, we can reveal who has been going the furthest for your team.
For supporters of West Ham it will come as little surprise to learn that crowd favourite Mark Noble has covered more ground than any other player in the top flight.
Indeed, the 380,927 metres which he has galloped is some 16km more than his nearest running rival.
Noble’s effort is the equivalent of having already completed NINE London Marathons this season.
Or, in footballing terms, having set off from Upton Park and not stopped until he got to Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium on Teesside.
There have been calls in some parts for Noble to be recognised with an international call-up for his performances this term. 

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TOP TEN DISTANCES COVERED IN 2013/2014 PREMIER LEAGUE

Position	Player	Distance (m)
1	Mark Noble	38,0927.0
2	Mile Jedinak	36,4319.9
3	Steve Sidwell	36,1070.8
4	Jordan Henderson	35,9080.0
5	Adam Lallana	35,8094.8
6	Jake Livermore	35,1434.8
7	Steven Caulker	33,8766.2
8	Jay Rodriguez	33,2569.6
9	Tom Huddlestone	33,2352.6
10	Ryan Shawcross	33,0012.1

Can't knock his work rate...

Statistics can tell you anything you want them to

How about this? I would rather Noble kept his shape in front of the back four, marked the man he is supposed to be marking and didn't run around the pitch chasing the ball like a schoolboy - clocking up miles. It may fool some. At times it looks undisciplined and unnecessary to me

Stands back and waits for pro-Noble flack !

nothing wrong with an intelligent comment dude. and blindly defending or slagging off any player is just puerile, every player has his strengths and weaknesses. Just some of our players have had (much) more weaknesses then pluses.

I was gonna say it didn't matter how much ground a midfielder covers if the ball is played long over his head half the time   


I do think noble is one of our better players mind. the 5 live team certianly sung his praises vs liverpool

Tony P wrote:Statistics can tell you anything you want them to

How about this? I would rather Noble kept his shape in front of the back four, marked the man he is supposed to be marking and didn't run around the pitch chasing the ball like a schoolboy - clocking up miles. It may fool some. At times it looks undisciplined and unnecessary to me

Stands back and waits for pro-Noble flack !

Headless chicken comes to mind.
Can do something really good then buggers it up with his next move.
Reminds me a little bit of Rio Coker.

none of the players in that list are really anyone you'd immediately think or to put on a list of the 'best' players.

if you're running around so much maybe you're just not in the right position or you're just chasing the game all the time.

westhamonkey wrote:

none of the players in that list are really anyone you'd immediately think or to put on a list of the 'best' players.

if you're running around so much maybe you're just not in the right position or you're just chasing the game all the time.

My point exactly

Ok I will defend Nobes on this one, sort of.
I think to a degree the above comments are correct BUT, there are a few other players that should be putting in a harder shift around him
I think Nobes does get pulled out of position on too many occasions but that is due to the fact that he is covering others, its what we get for having a slow lumbering midfield

Campo wrote:Ok I will defend Nobes on this one, sort of.
I think to a degree the above comments are correct BUT, there are a few other players that should be putting in a harder shift around him
I think Nobes does get pulled out of position on too many occasions but that is due to the fact that he is covering others, its what we get for having a slow lumbering midfield

an eloquent and well thought out defence sir

Campo wrote:Ok I will defend Nobes on this one, sort of.
I think to a degree the above comments are correct BUT, there are a few other players that should be putting in a harder shift around him
I think Nobes does get pulled out of position on too many occasions but that is due to the fact that he is covering others, its what we get for having a slow lumbering midfield

There is certainly some truth in that Campo but not a lot. Taylor tends to stay pretty central and hardly ventures over the halfway line. McCartney used to get forward but hardly does it now. Therefore the only covering Noble would need to do would seem to be in wide areas. Certainly Diame gives no protection to his full back and clearly doesn't want to be playing out wide. Hopefully tonight he will play just behind AC. His best position IMO

Noble regularly closes down high up the pitch. That is NOT his job. That is AC and Nolan's job. He needs to understand that his role in the side in our formation is to sit alongside Taylor in front of the back four, win tackles and give it simple. That allows our full backs to get forward. His job is NOT to be Roy of the Rovers and run around clocking up miles in his legs; especially as he hasn't got the pace to recover quickly enough

If he realises his role and sticks to it he will be a much better player for us

maybe I did not use the correct words or phrases
When I say Nobes is 'covering'  I mean he is covering the lack of closing down, not necessarily those out of position
sometime we allow opposing midfield to collect and move the ball far to easily
I feel and i may be wrong that we back off far to quickly at times in the midfield in order to pack the back line.

this also leaves us with the next problem, that when we do regain possession of the ball the only outlet being the hoof to Carroll in the hope he can keep the damn thing, our lack of fluidity is why we end up with around 40% possession most games, this again is probably due to our very slow midfield also.

a slow and technically poor central midfield Campo. Our ball retention is awful. Possibly the worst in the Prem

Tony P wrote:

Campo wrote:Ok I will defend Nobes on this one, sort of.
I think to a degree the above comments are correct BUT, there are a few other players that should be putting in a harder shift around him
I think Nobes does get pulled out of position on too many occasions but that is due to the fact that he is covering others, its what we get for having a slow lumbering midfield

There is certainly some truth in that Campo but not a lot. Taylor tends to stay pretty central and hardly ventures over the halfway line. McCartney used to get forward but hardly does it now. Therefore the only covering Noble would need to do would seem to be in wide areas. Certainly Diame gives no protection to his full back and clearly doesn't want to be playing out wide. Hopefully tonight he will play just behind AC. His best position IMO

Noble regularly closes down high up the pitch. That is NOT his job. That is AC and Nolan's job. He needs to understand that his role in the side in our formation is to sit alongside Taylor in front of the back four, win tackles and give it simple. That allows our full backs to get forward. His job is NOT to be Roy of the Rovers and run around clocking up miles in his legs; especially as he hasn't got the pace to recover quickly enough

If he realises his role and sticks to it he will be a much better player for us

trouble is, as u said, that is clearly not happening...

Tony P wrote:a slow and technically poor central midfield Campo. Our ball retention is awful. Possibly the worst in the Prem

One of the pluses from the other night was Nocerino, who at times seemed to have far more time on the ball than out other midfielders, he can play a ball too

He has to be a contender for HOTY.  I think he does a great job  

Well his crows nest will go down in history

Jiggs wrote:He has to be a contender for HOTY.  I think he does a great job  

Nocerino? Nah? Not played enough games   

Tony P wrote:

Jiggs wrote:He has to be a contender for HOTY.  I think he does a great job  

Nocerino? Nah? Not played enough games   

That's what will probably make him a contender   

alfiehammer wrote:

Tony P wrote:

Jiggs wrote:He has to be a contender for HOTY.  I think he does a great job  

Nocerino? Nah? Not played enough games   

That's what will probably make him a contender   

I can't think of anyone this season who deserves HOTY.

Exactly Charlie, so it's the always running, ever present and passionate Noble,
with Adrian as runner up.

I would have gone for Reid at one point but he disappeared off the radar



Nolan had a great run of inspiring us to that cluster of points that will probably end up keeping us up. That's about it

Charlie Ham wrote:

alfiehammer wrote:

Tony P wrote:

Jiggs wrote:He has to be a contender for HOTY.  I think he does a great job  

Nocerino? Nah? Not played enough games   

That's what will probably make him a contender   

I can't think of anyone this season who deserves HOTY.

Me neither. The most consistent performer - who has been playing all season - is Stewart Downing IMO. Normally a 7 or 8 out of 10. Adrian right up there since he came into the side. Noble has been decent too

Like Charlie Ham says there is nobody who really deserves an award won by the likes of Bonzo, Sir Trev, Stretch or PDC

Dylan for HotY. Nuff said

We discussed this yesterday JDLK, but Abbi seemed to recall that you were given a list to chose from.

If I get the opportunity though, my vote will go to Dylan.

It`s a shame that we have to choose from a list as like many people have said giving HOTY to Dylan Tombides would of been a perfect way of honouring him ! But out list of name`s we have been given I think it`s between Noble, Reid and Adrian