Tomas Soucek was poor once again for West Ham United during our win over Watford in the Premier League last night.
It’s so hard to criticise the 26-year-old – has been absolutely brilliant on the whole for the Hammers since moving to the London Stadium, originally on loan, in January 2020.
West Ham made the Czech Republic international’s loan move a permanent one in July 2020 for around £15 million (The Daily Mail).
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Soucek played an integral role for the Hammers last season, bagging 10 goals in 38 Premier League games (Transfermarkt).
He has been well off the boil this term, however, chalking up just three goals in 22 league games for the East London outfit (Transfermarkt).
Soucek has been mostly deployed as the deep-lying central midfielder this season in order to allow Declan Rice to get forward more.
Not only has the change made us far less solid defensively but it has also nullified the 26-year-old’s main strengths.
Tomas Soucek puts in poor performance for West Ham against Watford
David Moyes must see that the 26-year-old is entirely ineffective when playing as the holding midfielder for the Hammers.
He is so good at arriving into the box late on, getting on the end of crosses and generally making a nuisance of himself in the final third.
He hasn’t been able to do that much this season, however, aside from the game away at Watford in December when, surprise surprise, Rice wasn’t playing.
Moyes needs to make a bold decision now. Does he drop Soucek or revert him to his natural role as a more advanced central midfielder?
Arguably, Soucek’s biggest weakness is when he’s in possession of the football and his fairly limited distribution. When playing in his new role, he often slows down our progress up the pitch as a team.
It’s just not working.
The Czech ace proved during our 4-1 win at Watford two months ago that he still has what it takes to make a big difference for West Ham. At the moment though, he’s just a dead weight.
Moyes needs to make a change. Whether that involves Soucek dropping down to the bench or not remains to be seen, however.
The Czech ace gives his all for West Ham, week in, week out. Something has to give though. We have reached a vitally important part of the season. And perhaps simply switching Rice and Soucek back to their roles from last season will help us return to form.
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