West Ham captain Mark Noble has said that West Ham’s misfortune with injuries is a big reason behind the slowdown in their league form.
The Hammers have slumped to 10th, after their blistering start to the season lead many fans to believe that the Champions League was a legitimate possibility. The have no wins in eight and have drawn their last five games.
When speaking to the Daily Mail, Noble said how they are already at a disadvantage against fully fit sides.
I’m the first one to say we have a good squad but we miss the players we’ve got. We miss the players who create stuff and score goals. Take away Jelavic, Carroll, Dimitri, Lanzini and Moses, it’s going to hurt any squad. These teams are playing their full squads and we’re asking six or seven players to play when they are not fit. We lost Tomkins at half-time and Cresswell with 20 minutes to go.
Noble has spoken about how proud he is of the team, for pulling through a tough period of injuries and lots of fixtures.
We have managed to cope with it and I’m proud of the players for digging in and picking up the points.
The 28-year-old also commented on the controversy surrounding the award of a penalty to Aston Villa in their last match. West Ham had gone ahead thanks to a Richard Cresswell goal, however Jordan Ayew’s penalty rescued a point for the side bottom of the table.
I thought it was a foul leading up to the penalty. It’s just the way it’s going for us. We scored a good goal with Cress and you hope you can hang on. We knew they were going to be tough. We wanted to come and get the three points and we were heading that way until a bad decision.
