West Ham boss David Moyes has defended his decision to bring club legend Mark Noble on in the dying seconds, just to take a penalty.
Deep into stoppage time and trailing Manchester United 2-1 after a late Jesse Lingard goal, the Hammers were awarded a penalty following a Luke Shaw handball. While VAR looked at the decision, Noble was summoned to the field by manager David Moyes, and deployed to take the spot kick.
In something reminiscent of an NFL special teams player, Noble ran onto the field to take one kick of the ball.
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You sometimes see players being substituted on in the 120th minute of a knock-out game as teams prepare for a shoot-out, but it’s exceptionally rare to see someone subbed on in these circumstances.
Unfortunately for the home side, Noble’s effort was thwarted by David De Gea – his first penalty save for club or country since 2016, and his first for the Red Devils since 2014.
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Moyes stressed after the game that Noble had not asked to come on for the glory and that it was all on him.
“It wasn’t Mark, it was the manager’s decision. I chose Mark to come off the bench to take the penalty kick because I know how good his penalty record is,” Moyes said.
“Mark was brave enough, wanted it, so from that point of view there’s no responsibility with Mark whatsoever.”
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“For a player to come on, having no warm-up, not touched the ball once, it’s a big ask,” Roy Keane said after the match.
“If he scores today we’d be say ‘clever boy, cute decision’ but there’s always a doubt, I think.”
Graham Souness said the issue wasn’t only that Noble had come off the bench, but that the veteran midfielder wasn’t warmed up.
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“Whether he’s 24 or 34 it’s wrong, but it compounds the problem when you’re asking a 34-year-old to come on with his very first kick, who’s been sitting on his backside for 20 minutes, half an hour,” Souness said.
“It was a poor penalty, it wasn’t a great save.”
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Micah Richards defended the call, saying sometimes you have to trust the data behind a decision. Noble was rated among the best penalty takers in Europe last year. He hadn’t missed one in five years.
“He’s a specialist penalty taker because he’s scored his last ten,” Richards said.
“It’s not just a technical thing, it’s a mental thing as well. If you ask someone to go up and take a penalty in the West Ham squad, you’ve got Mark Noble there, he’s scored his last ten, you’ve not got a better chance.”
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