Tomas Soucek is – as we would expect – refusing to become negative over the defeat against Chelsea .
Much has been made – quite rightly – about the absence of Declan from midfield and yesterday it was again demonstrated by Tomas being forced to play a far more defensive role.
As the scorer of so many goals this season that was a considerable handicap against a Chelsea team which is always likely to grab at least one goal given there away record.
He of course barely put a foot wrong in front of the back three but the lack of impetus given to our front runners was obvious only corrected to some extent by the arrival of Said Benrahma as sub.
And speaking afterwards to www.whufc.com Tomas expressed his disappointment at the result whilst refusing to become too downhearted about things going forward.
He said: “It was a tough game for us. We wanted to win because we were playing at home and we have a very good record at home. We wanted to be back in the top four again, it’s our dream, so we were disappointed with the result.
“It was hard, and we didn’t create many chances. I had one shot in the first half which VAR could have checked for handball as it was going to the goal, but in the second half we started well and this is the way how we would like to play.
“We said in the changing room after the game that we should have played from the start like we did from the start of the second half. It’s a shame for us, but we were still only 1-0 down and we could have scored and drawn or even won.
“It’s a shame, but still I think that we played better in last 20 minutes, but the red card made it harder again.”
When asked for his thoughts on Balbuena’s sending-off, which was confirmed by referee Chris Kavanagh after VAR Peter Bankes asked the official to view the incident on a pitchside screen, Souček felt the Paraguayan was hard done by.
“I saw it in the changing room after the game and we all thought it was a harsh decision, so we are not happy about it, because he only kicked the ball out and their player stayed in front of him, so I don’t understand it, but it was bad for us.