David Moyes plays 26-year-old midfielder Tomas Soucek week in, week out for West Ham United almost without fail.
The Hammers boss left the Czech midfielder on the touchline for today’s game against Arsenal but it was only the third Premier League match that he hasn’t started this season.
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Soucek has been nowhere near his best this season either.
The former Slavia Prague man’s ability on the ball is limited to say the least and he is often found wanting in possession.
He is a huge character, however, and will always give 110% for West Ham. And because of that, it feels very uncomfortable when criticising big Tomas. The Czech midfielder does do plenty of good things as well. And Moyes seemed to lift the lid on exactly why he plays him all the time during his post-match presser today…
David Moyes offers main reason why Tomas Soucek is so important
The 6ft 4in midfielder has been a dependable member of Moyes’s team since the Scot took over at the London Stadium for the second time back in December 2019.
Even when Soucek has been ineffective in the final third, he has always been very useful from set-pieces both defensively and offensively.
And David Moyes hinted at why he persists in playing Soucek, even when he might not be at his best, as quoted by WHUFC.com:
“We made a few changes and maybe a few people gave us different sorts of skillsets, but the one we lost was that we took the height out of the team today and we ended up losing to set pieces. That’s what happens is that when you put some of the bigger players in, you’re more robust and it helps you at set pieces, but the minute we take them out we become vulnerable and that was noticeable today.”
Many West Ham fans have been calling for Soucek to be rested (or dropped) for quite some time now.
The irony of him being left out today is that we conceded two goals from set-pieces.
Had the 27-year-old played, there’s a good chance that West Ham wouldn’t have conceded those two goals.
It’s clear that Moyes places a lot of importance on defending and attacking set-pieces. And that’s obviously why we never see Soucek left out in a game when Moyes selects his strongest side.
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