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Who is Tomas Soucek?

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Tonight, Slavia Prague Chairman has confirmed he has released Tomas Soucek for talks with West Ham to pass a medical and agree personal terms after agreeing a deal in principle for a permanent transfer rumoured to be 20 million euros.

But who is Tomas Soucek with a scouting report from https://footballbh.net/

An essential attribute of a midfielder is to circulate the passes accurately and with precision. Even a central defensive midfielder is judged by the way he passes around the ball and his ability to weave magic by creating chances along with his defensive abilities.

During buildup Souček often moves back and forms a three-man backline to open up passing lanes for his goalkeeper and centre-backs and pushes the attacking full-backs up. The other midfielders in his team drop deep from their usual position to carry out fluid passing from the back. However, Souček doesn’t always remain constant at the centre-back position during the buildup. When he sees there is no passing lane to carry forward the ball, he moves from the centre-back position and draws out a player.

Slavia Prague’s manager generally fields his team in 4-1-4-1, with Souček acting as the pivot. Slavia’s manager occasionally utilises him as the deep-lying playmaker, just as Steven Gerrard was used at the later stages of his career. Souček doesn’t play a lot of long balls as compared to his midfield partner but his accuracy is commendable.

During the buildup, generally, Souček stations himself as the third centre-back to open the passing lanes for his defenders.

When playing for the Czech Republic though he is used in the double pivot, where he is not allowed to tread into more attacking positions. He seems to play more long balls when playing for the Czech Republic than for Slavia Prague.

Another aspect of Souček’s game which is slightly different from his teammates is his passing length. It is quite evident that the deep-lying midfielders or the defensive midfielders are outside of the quartiles in the first quadrant. He finds himself in a good company of defensive midfielders. Along with the short passes he makes to buildup the play, he often looks for players making runs or the forwards dropping deep to feed them with passes.

Midfielders are often appreciated when they produce a great display of their passing skills, try to break down the opposition defence with risky passes in the final third which leads to scoring chances. Souček doesn’t indulge much in risky passes. He likes to build up with short passes or occasional long balls to bother the opponents.

He isn’t much creative when it comes to providing smart passes, key passes or through balls but he is one of the best assist providers in the Czech league. He has three assists in the league one from a through pass, another by winning an aerial duel in the box and third by winning the ball in the final third and producing a delicious cross from the left flank.

Souček is a part of dynamic midfield triumvirate who changes their positions more often than not. In the course of Slavia attacks, it is often seen that the Slavia captain takes a position in the box and Hušbauer, Stanciu and the attacking full-backs often provide crosses and creative passes into the box.

Souček is the chief penalty taker for Slavia. However, even without his three penalties, he has scored six goals from open play and set-pieces this ongoing season. His medium built tall figure is used perfectly by the Slavia gaffer. He is massive in the air and wins most of his aerial duels. He has scored three headed goals out of the total six non-penalty goals.

The defensive midfielders job is more than just protecting the defensive line. He is the extra layer of protection in the midfield. Roles can differ in this position. The player could be asked to orchestrate play as well as has to do more of the dirty work. The Slavia captain has a daunting task in hand due to the fact that he provides a much more attacking dimension to the game than the other defensive midfielders.

He is tremendous when it comes to defensive aspects of the game. A divergent attacking dimension of a defensive midfielder doesn’t hinder his defensive performance. He is a quality defender. He indulges in more defensive duels than his teammates as well as has the highest defensive duels won % per 90 mins.

The strongest aspect of his game is his dominance in the air. He is a beast who wins the aerial duels in both the defensive plays as well as the attacking plays. This may be one of the reasons Trpišovský instructs Souček to position himself in the opposition box while the attacking midfielders Hušbauer and Stanciu positions themselves deeper.

The quality he offers makes him one of the best defensive midfielders in Europe who has been under the radar.

Souček is an intelligent footballer who positions himself in the right positions at the right times.

Souček is brilliant in his positioning, that is one of the reasons even without being gifted with an enormous pace he easily recovers to his defensive position once Slavia loses the ball.

His defensive positioning is enormous and is the best aspect of his game along with winning duels. He positions himself perfectly in his own box during crosses and prevents those. But the finest aspect of his game is his positioning in the midfield where he often wins the ball.

His brilliant positioning makes him a second ball and a loose ball magnet. He occasionally positions himself at the edge of the box (when he is not in the box, which is minimal) when too many Slavia players attack the box. Slavia loves to whip in crosses especially from the right flank. He latches onto every second ball that is cleared by the opposition. He even succeeds to win the loose balls in the opposition box.

Tomáš Souček is a medium built tall midfielder who utilises his height to the maximum extent in winning the aerial duels. He is great in defensive duels, interceptions, and positioning. The Slavia Prague captain is good when going forward too. The midfield stalwart has developed every aspect of his game and has made the midfield spot for his club and currently his country his own.

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I am Season Ticket Holder in West stand lower at the London Stadium and before that, I used to stand in the Sir Trevor Brooking Lower Row R seat 159 in the Boleyn Ground and in the Eighties I stood on the terraces of the old South Bank. I am a presenter on the West Ham Podcast called Moore Than Just a Podcast A Blogger on West Ham Till I die a member of the West Ham Supporters Advisory Board (SAB), Founder of a Youtube channel called Mr West Ham Football at http://www.youtube.com/MrWestHamFootball,

I am also the associate editor here at Claret and Hugh.

Life Long singer of bubbles! Come on you Irons!

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17 comments

  • Steve says:

    To me this seems like a good qulaity signing at a time when we desperately need it for the optics as much as the actual players capability. I am not surprised , however, to see that most comments are almot automatically negative.

  • ExPat_Hammer says:

    I’d rather see the question – “Who is West Ham?” – posed to Tomas Soucek and see what his response is.

  • Ger says:

    We need players no doubt – but who scouted him ?

  • Mistikerino says:

    @Jimbo44 because he’s good for czech league, wants to a better club and has done pretty much all he could for his club (cup & league win) + qf in Europa last season. This year getting to UCL group stage was more of a bonus.

    Not sure if West Ham is a better option when he most probably could play UCL next season in Slavia. But I’m not here to judge this.

  • The Cat says:

    Apparently coming over for a medical, let us hope he doesn’t get hijacked on arrival at the airport. As it wouldn’t be the first time.
    I too would’ve preferred Sander, but at £20M (rumoured), he’s out of our league LOL.
    Bloody Unbelievable if Sheff Utd beat us to his signing, for being a more attractive prospect? Says everything you need to know about where we are right now!

  • Jimbo44 says:

    Hugh. If he is that good why are they selling selling him

    • Robert Bass says:

      Perhaps they have an enlightened board who understand a players’ desire to play in a top league (whether or not he has seen the table is debatable) Perhaps his money has been trebled 🤑

    • Joneleth says:

      Because the transfer fee is something like 30-40% of Slavia’s yearly budget.

  • Hammer64 says:

    Any striker rumours? Only four days left…

    • Dunlopilo says:

      Maybe because there was an agreement between him and the club he could go after Christmas. Maybe because they could not go further in the CL they decide to sell and cash in. There could be a host of reasons. Dendoncker had Anderlecht’s promise that if he stayed another year he would be allowed to leave in the winter transfer window. That is when he almost came to West Ham.

  • Hammer64 says:

    Well looks like we couldn’t compete with Sheffield Utd for Berg, which says a lot. But could be the two Daves have done a detailed statistical comparison of Berg & Soucer & chosen Soucek instead. No? To be fair, maybe the logic is go for experience – perhaps a 21 year old is not best suited to a relegation scrap. Maybe Berg didn’t fancy it. Apparently he had been looking for a side with CL prospects. Shame he didn’t come & talk to the Daves-Sullivan could have told him the one about the gold at the end of the rainbow.

    Anyway let’s hope this guy is good -and not injury prone. And that Leicester or Everton….or Burnley ..don’t want him.

  • John Jewers says:

    I was hoping for a hard tackling, midfield dynamo type player, someone to break up play and turn defence into attack and I’m not sure Soucek is that kind of player. Franck Kessie might have been, but that move doesn’t look likely. But, we’re so desperate for reinforcements, almost any mid-fielder would be welcome. I’m wary about these videos though, as Carlos Sanchez’s youtube skills video makes him look awesome.

  • Hamptonese says:

    Just what we need in the middle of the park to help Rice and Nobes. Good to see he takes penalties and was captain as we need some leadership.

  • Dusty Miller says:

    Sander Berge looks set for Sheffield United? So we might just need this guy or who else??

  • Henry says:

    For same price could get Sander Berge for 17 mil. Potentially world class. Only 21.

  • Dave says:

    Sounds like superman !
    All for 20m.
    The problem with being a great passer etc is he needs someone to pass to.
    Anyway let’s hope he is good , shame it’s leaked no doubt his current club has opened the door to the media so an auction might kick off.

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