West Ham ace Tomas Soucek has clearly made a huge U-turn
West Ham United’s giant midfielder Tomas Soucek seems like a completely changed man this season, and that’s great news for us.
Tomas Soucek joined West Ham on loan from Slavia Prague in January 2020 before making his move to the London Stadium a permanent one the following summer for around £15 million (Daily Mail).
The 28-year-old made an instant impact with the Hammers, scoring 10 Premier League goals during his first full season with the club.
It looked like David Moyes had secured an absolute coup by signing the Czech Republic international for just £15 million.
However, Soucek’s form dipped from the start of the 2021/22 season when Moyes switched him to a deeper position in order to accommodate Declan Rice’s new, more advanced role.
It was an experiment that clearly didn’t work. Not only did it make us worse as a team but it badly impacted Soucek by taking away his strengths and shining a spotlight on his weakness.
This season though, he seems to have returned to more of an attacking role with Edson Alvarez being used to protect the back four.
The giant midfielder is getting into far better positions as a result and in fairness to him, his all-round game seems to be better as well. His performance against Liverpool yesterday was evidence of the huge strides he has made…
West Ham ace Tomas Soucek has clearly made a huge U-turn
The Czech Republic international was absolutely everywhere yesterday. He put in a top-class defensive performance and was unlucky not to score a goal after a wonder save from Alisson Becker.
Against Liverpool, the 28-year-old had 43 touches and registered an impressive pass complete rate for him – 82.1% from 28 attempted passes. He had three shots on goal and made one key pass as well (Who Scored).
He also made two tackles, three clearances and three blocks against the Reds yesterday (Who Scored).
To me, it seems like we have the old Tomas Soucek back, and that can only be good news for West Ham as a club.
He has one goal to his name in six games in all competitions this season, and I expect him to end up on 10 at least come the end of the campaign.
He is definitely being given more freedom to roam forward this season and that’s a complete U-turn from last term.
Big Tomas is back, and his performance against Liverpool yesterday was the best that I’ve seen from him over the past year or so. Hopefully he starts scoring regularly again now as well.
