There is little doubt about the individual qualities of Tomas Soucek, Edson Alvarez, Lucas Paqueta and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Soler.
Soucek is a West Ham legend, with an uncanny knack for scoring important goals and an unwavering work ethic. Alvarez is a Mexican international, a proven Champions League-standard defensive midfielder, and Soler is a technically gifted midfielder who can play in multiple positions.
Paqueta is a wizard on the ball who has vision, strength and the ability to pick out a pass that nobody else can see. Sure, all four midfielders have their faults, but they didn’t get selected multiple times for their countries without merit.
Whilst the midfield selected for yesterdays game have their obvious individual qualities, collectively it does not work in the Premier League because they are too slow. It’s painful to watch such good players chasing shadows in an increasingly athletic top flight, which seems to have become even faster this season.
Against Brentford yesterday, the four fastest players on the pitch all played for the opposition and, during the first half, the Hammers could not compete. The second half was an improvement due to a combination of Graham Potter’s changes and Brentford sitting back on their lead, but it is clear that West Ham can’t continue to play this combination in midfield.
I’m not suggesting selling everyone – Soucek and Paqueta still have big roles to play in the team – but they need to be supplemented with quicker players around them. It won’t be easy to drop such esteemed players, but Potter will need to make a tough call because the team lack the ability to move quickly, and it is hurting us both defensively and going forward
It seems the only reasons anyone includes Soucek in their team is because he has scored the occasional goal, and nostalgia, but if the others were competent, he would not and should not get into the team. As West Ham do not need to do much to stay in the PL this season, it is an ideal opportunity to play the younger ones like Guilherme and Orford, so they are ready for full games next season and give Potter more data on what he needs (or doesn’t) to buy in the summer. Kudus needs a good talking to. There is no point having top stats for dribbling when scoring and assist numbers are poor.
With that sluggish first half performance, any hopes chances to beat Brentford were shattered. We were easy to play against, and a 0-3 after the first 45 minutes would not have been a surprise. The team lacked in confidence and gone was the compact team seen on recent games. The defense struggled, and going forward we were not well balanced with Bowen, Kudus and WBK providing a very strong and talented right side, with little action seen on the left flank. Good to see the energy contributed during the second half by Scarles and Ferguson and it begs the question of what more minutes of the fast paced Guilherme, as well as the addition of Irving might have contributed.
Hope everyone at West Ham reads this. It seems to be obvious to everyone except those in charge for the last year or so!
Apologies all I was at the game and it was announced Rodriguez was coming on even though it was ferguson and I was still suffering the hang over from the 1 St half, jwp scarles and ferguson did well . Rodriguez what a dummy I am , nobody agree with me please ps I asked my 8 Yr old what the best part of the game for him and he said the burger chips and a cherry coke, you couldn’t it up
Guilherme is probably fastest player whu have, beats Kudu/Summerville.
Various positions including mid attack Been stated it’s his best area.
Young and needs patience but more playing time not just 3 minutes.
Bissaka and Scarles have plenty of energy.
I love Tommy Soucek, but he is a passenger between both boxes – if we could bring him on just for set pieces then fine, but we can’t.
Time to say cheerio and thank him for his efforts and dedication to the team.
Obviously, he is not the only one who needs to go.
Summer clear out is understatement.
Let’s wait and see what happens, and hope when we trot out for the first game next season we have a SQUAD who can compete & has pace and intensity.
I just hope when we trot out for the opening game next season it’s not in the championship. We’ve been relegated before with a better 1st 11 than we’ve got now.
I cant understand why Irvine didn’t feature at all yesterday, I was there yesterday with my 8 year old grandson, educating him on what suffering is like . I don’t need to mention anymore of the game but as I say Irvine had done well in previous games but not used yesterday, Rodriguez comes on another slow player why, then guilerme comes on for 3 mins . I feel more comfortable with potter and I think he will make a difference but the starting lineup was wrong . As was said earlier mubermo was their most dangerous player and we let him play 1st half ,say no more.
Agree mate but I don’t think Irving has much pace either. We brought on Ferguson at half time, not Rodriguez. The announcer made an error although they corrected it later. I would rather give the academy players a chance in the middle for the rest of the season. Our current midfield has no legs. Still can’t understand why Guilherme only gets last 2 or 3 minutes each game. Surely give him at least 15-20 minutes and see what he can do.
Why not play Soucek as central defender,as he hasn’t got a lot of pace, but let him get in the box for free kicks and corners.
With Kilman and Todibo in support when he’s in the box…just a thought.
Agree but we have no one with speed in the squad to replace them and have not had that profile of player since Rice left.
Tactics will need to change. 3-4-3 and us sitting deeper playing on the break is the tactic suited to the slowest midfield in the Premiership.
Agreed the midfield should have Ben addressed in the last window it was clear to the fans . I also re some players were not in it , where was the aggression , fight energy it’s got to improve . Scarles is better then Emerson , Todibo is surely better then Mav . The players need to work harder ax as a team