As the Carabao Cup fixture at the London Stadium drew to a close and minutes ticked by with a penalty shootout looming, Hammers head coach Julen Lopetegui surveyed his 11 players on the pitch to decide on substitutions.
Summer signings Füllkrug and Summerville were withdrawn, as was free-kick specialist James Ward-Prowse. None had been particularly effective for West Ham against Bournemouth, but one player, despite a poor performance, remained on the pitch without any risk of being substituted.
That player was Tomáš Souček, who has quickly established himself among the small group of players Lopetegui seems to trust implicitly. Clearly, the Hammers’ gaffer believed his big Czech midfielder had a game-changing moment in him, despite evidence to the contrary throughout the match.
Against Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, Souček was a menace at times, causing havoc among the opposition defense. However, this was not the case on Wednesday night at the London Stadium, where his performance exposed his technical limitations in midfield as he struggled to impact the opposition backline.
It was perhaps an enlightening moment for West Ham’s Spanish head coach, who would have noticed how Souček and Füllkrug failed to gel. Much has been made of the poor midfield combination of Souček and Ward-Prowse, but the blend of the German center-forward and the Czech battering ram was possibly even worse.
Lopetegui is unlikely to repeat this bludgeoning partnership in the future, and we can expect something different next time. But what has become very clear is that if someone has to be dropped, it is highly unlikely to be Big Sou.
Such a strange situation. This is like the Emperor’s new clothes. I’m happy to say what I see though. Todger out I’m afraid but it does seem that Loppy sees a gold lame catsuit. Should have gone to Specsavers.
Utterly ridiculous that we are going to be reliant upon soucek as our target man, we have spent in excess of £160 million to play hoof ball up to soucek! Why can’t we have a manager who wants to play attractive football? Moyes spent £400 million to sit 10 men behind the ball and now it appears we have allardyce mark 2 in the dugout
Well Dean, I would be really happy with Sam Allardyce II making progress with the gang we have and getting the best out of them.
COYI
You really want to watch hoofball? Wimbledon of the 1980s would be right up your street then, anti football rubbish
‘Utterly ridiculous that we are going to be reliant upon soucek as our target man’. There is of course an alternative view that Lopetequi has realized that Tomas is far better suited to the role he had before Rice wanted to enhance his value by playing a more attacking role. While the Bournemouth game was a disappointment you didn’t think that the Palace win was more entertaining than the fare Moyes used to serve up? How attacking should we be when we have a first choice defense that’s barely played a couple of games together?
I don’t want to be contrary but the football played under Moyes when we had lingard was head and shoulders better than the sideways, backwards hoof we have witnessed so far under lopetegui. We were told he wasn’t much different to Moyes in terms of entertainment and I have not been disabused of that theory yet
Will Soucek start against Citeh? We know he will but to have a chance keeping the ball is highly important. I’d go for a double pivot, Rodrigues and Alvarez with Paq-Man forward in 10.
Amazing! This man seems to have more lives than Zouma’s cat!!
😂 hope for all kids that get picked last by their mates playing down the park
Agree but I would switch positions kudus and paqueta
Agree but against Citeh, Liverpool or Arsenal we just need a little more cover IMO
How can you drop the Czech Captain with kretinsky being your boss. Lop in the same trap as moyes
Is Soucek Kenny “Look into my eyes, the centre of my eyes, not around my eyes, 3,2,1 and your under” I am NEVER DROPED EVER – sorry but after countless posts on Soucek highlighting all of his nuances and tactical shortcomings it has reached the point where I can say no more than this bloke is ****ING ****E.
I thought you meant Kenny from South Park. Dies every week but somehow back the following week
Soucek does a few things extremely well. He causes chaos in the opponents box by winning balls, flick ons, knock downs. He is second to none at arriving late unmarked. He’s as good as another centre back at defensive set pieces.
Beyond that he quickly runs out but if you can incorporate him in a way that makes most of his strengths and which makes least of his weaknesses then you’re onto things like him winning the penalty against Villa and his arriving late goal against Palace.
Do his shortcomings outweigh that, we’ll see but so far not.
Not sure why Antonio started ahead of Fullkrug again today, unless we’ve bought another dud and the manager realises that already. I think Soucek will be on the bench more once the new midfielders are bedded in. Or at least I hope so 🤞