Tomas Soucek’s position at West Ham is becoming an increasing difficult to understand as the games tick by!
It’s now well known the manager has told him to sit defensively when Declan Rice is alongside him – a role in which he has appeared less comfortable than last season when he was allowed the defensive/offensive role.
He went off to register 12 goals and become Hammer of the Year – a position he hasn’t come close to during the current campaign.
Some claim that is as a result of tiredness from too many games but but it could also be put down to the changed role.
Last night in Vienna he found himself at the end of dug-out shouts from the boss who looked to have used him alongside Noble with the captain becoming responsible for the forward movement.
That may or may not have been the case but the manager explained afterwards that he wanted him higher up the pitch at various times – confusing.
Moyes said as quoted by Football:London per Hammers News: “I thought Tomas had dropped back and played a bit deeper and I don’t think it was needed I thought we could build up without him joining in the build-up. I wanted him to play higher ahead of it and then leave the build-up to the defenders.”
We understand that roles can change during games but we believe that Tomas needs to be playing in the most effective role possible as we saw last season and not be regularly swapped from one to another.
Right now we believe he is needed in the role for which he was bought and became Hammer of the Year and it’s hopefully a decision which can be arrived at via conversations between him, the manager and Declan.
After all Moyes has demonstrated of his ability to manage and get the best out of players and the team, I think questioning his decisions in this way is a fools errand. Let’s support him, and not question every decision.
IO support him whlly but I’m trying to understand what’s happened to Tomas who, I love to bits. It looks more than tiredness
I’ve always thought that Declan should stick to what he’s good at and what’s got him to where he is and stay as a defensive midfielder and allow Souchek to play his natural attacking game but since Declan urged on by the media has decided he needs to get forward more and score more goals Souchek has had to compromise and stay back more. Declan’s the captain so if he tells Souchek to stay back and cover him then What can he do. Noble probably does the same. It was noticeable yesterday how often Noble got forward in attacking positions leaving the midfield completely uncovered had It not been for Souchek.
Moyes will surely decide not Dec
I don’t think it’s the manager asking Souchek to sit back. All I could see from yesterday was Moyes urging Souchek to get forward. I think Souchek stayed back to cover Noble because Noble was getting forward.
Agree with you Hugh and Clive – Tomas is being played out of role by sitting back. He was great going forward, Dec great sweeping up. Tomas scored goals, frankly Dec is not. Last night it was clear that Tomas sat back covering, and Nobes bombed on with no hope of recovering to defend a break. Would prefer it left as before.
Let’s be clear on this Rice is the better player. That’s not to say I don’t still rate Soucek. Thursday’s game was an example of Noble to far forward in the 1st half.Soucek didn’t want to get caught up field with Noble not able to get back. In the 2nd half Noble went further back this then allowed Soucek to press upfield where he had a fantastic chance to score and misssed a sitter. Soucek seemed to be pretty happy with what was happening.
The chances we had against Vienna were nunerous a lot of point blank wasted attempts. Bowen especially.