Pride, disappointment, anger with his team mates- who knows what it was that tipped one West Ham player over the edge into giving his international team mates a captain’s dressing down after their performance in Tblisi when they suffered a 1-4 hammering at the hands of Georgia.
Reports have suggested that Tomas Soucek insisted his national coach ‘wait outside’ the dressing room as the West Ham man launched into criticism of his team-mates behind closed doors. The Czech republic are now stuck at the bottom of their group – having just been relegated in any case- and for Soucek it was an embarrassing defeat which saw his Czech Republic side 0-4 down by the hour mark.
Vlad Coufal had already been publicly criticised in the earlier fixture but, as Simon reported earlier, Soucek was included in the critique within Czech media reports on their national sides’ lacklustre performances. According to givemesport.com it was skipper Soucek who intervened and asked head coach Ivan Hasek to absent himsef so that he could have no doubt a ‘full and frank’ discussion with his team mates.
Tuesday’s match with Ukraine now assumes monumental importance for Tomas Soucek’s side who are rooted at the bottom of the table. It will be interesting to see whether Tornado Tom’s ‘hairdryer’ tactics make a difference to the way his team-mates perform! Three games in six days for our Czech contingent is a tough ask before returning to Premier League action at the week end, but such is the norm of a modern-day global football world. Fortunately now West Ham have a bigger squad meaning that players like Soucek are not ‘rinsed’ into exhaustion and should get some time with their feet up such is the strength in depth at London Stadium this year.