Our captain has been with Mark Noble the player of the season in championship.
For sure Kevin has been one of the most important players in the conquest ofa return to the Premier League.
He had been criticized early even last season because always been considered protected by his mentor Sam Allardyce.
Some people were trying to weaken the situation of the boss, considering that the team failed in playmaking and was about to miss the promotion.
This season, his mission was to drive the team to the necessary 40-42 points without being too much scared of a way back to the second tier.
From August to November, we can say he was successful in this mission, even if his Friend Carroll didn’t play that much.
He scored 5 goals and was efficient in a system where the club was collecting a lot of points that have protected us for any fear to be relegated for a long time.
Unfortunately he is still the number one player Allardyce had promoted to our club and as the results of the squad moved it from 6 th to 14 th in the table, it has an impact on the support he gets from some fans. The supporters that are gutted by the actual form would like some managerial change and of course Nolan is again the victim of his relationship with the boss.
It is anyway obvious that he didn’t really shown great skills in the last months. In December we lost Diame on injury and for a strange reason, Kevin Nolan hasn’t been able to perform in winter.
Kevin Nolan has been more or less the ghost of himself since the beginning of December. We were counting on him to lift the team, to drive it to some successes and finally we had some terrible games like Arsenal or Reading.
He scored at Fulham but more than the number of goals, his role on the pitch, the rating ofthe appearances were really disappointing.
That has been a long run of losses and not convincing games. He was not the only who was playing at a lower level thanin summer but for sure, the role he has in the actual system of Sam Allardyce is so important that he focuses all the complaints when he is not as good as he can be.
It is not completely impossible that Kevin Nolan is not responsible for the loss of fitness he suffered.
He surely played too much. Probably Sam Allardyce should have trust a bit more his teammates and sometimes put him on the bench just to keep motivation to work hard and recover fitness.
Ireally would like him to come back from injury for a second life in East London. Maybe this broken toe has been a good thing for him, giving him some time to recover and being ready for new battles.
David Sullivan just revealed that we were looking for closing some deal for new strikers for the record deal of the club.
Ican be wrong but insisting on record signing is for me a revelation that Andy Carroll and WHU is a finishing story. In August, we have read so many times that we were ready to close a permanent deal for him at 17 millions.
Nobody is making any move to talk about Carroll now.
Andy Carroll is an Allardyce guy as well, pushed in our squad on his demand and only scoring a few numbers of goals with some injuries.
Andy Carroll has also been a player for who Kevin Nolan has played a great role in the discussions and the fact that he has not been yet more impressive than in Liverpool, excepted maybe the first game against Fulham in September, is also something that has put him a bit in trouble with himself.
Anyway what can we expect now from him? Do we think that KevinNolan should continue to be in the starting XI on each game when he’s not injured or suspended?
Ithink Kevin Nolan can take benefit of a month without competing. I think only one goal against WBA and we will all forget his failed winter.
He showed also some positive reaction about the deal for the Olympic Stadium, projecting maybe himself finishing his career as a West Ham player, in Premier League in the new location of the club.
Itrust Kevin Nolan because he has in himself that fighting spirit we do like and we do need to complete our target for this season
Ireally hope what I’m analyzing as some loss of trust in Carroll and future departure signal will not impact Kevin Nolan.
Ireally do expect from him to play at his better level in the last games and again close the debate about his season by finishing it as he started.