West Ham manager Slaven Bilic believes that his captain, Mark Noble, should be rewarded for his fine form this season by being selected to represent his country.
Writing in his column for the Evening Standard, Bilic said that he wouldn’t ever tell an international manager which players to select, but he did say that Noble has been one of the best English midfielders in the league this season.
Having been a national coach, I am not one of those who would presume to tell Roy Hodgson that he should pick Mark but I would say there are not many English midfielders who have had a better season than him and for that reason I believe he should be rewarded.
The West Ham skipper has represented his country at every level from U16s to U21s, but has never earned a full international cap. He is eligible to play for Ireland and was reportedly open to doing so back in 2014, but that did not materialise.
As for why Noble has never been selected by England, Bilic says that there has been the assumption that he is just a combative player with little technique or quality on the ball, something which the Hammers’ boss was keen to point out is an incorrect assessment of his captain.
There were people who questioned his skills in the past. They said yes, he is a good tackler, he was reliable and he was always there. The way he is playing with the ball now, though, it is on a level which should be high enough for England. His critics have also said that he lacks pace. Maybe against a stop-watch but this is not athletics. You have many players who are not that quick but they are clever, they are reading the game and they know where the ball is going to be.
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