West Ham United head coach Graham Potter has a lot of work to do with his squad at the London Stadium.
Graham Potter was handed the reigns at West Ham on Thursday last week, and big things are expected of the 49-year-old at the London Stadium.
The Hammers secured a real coup by appointing Potter, after Karren Brady claimed that we beat some of the biggest club’s in Europe to his signature.
The style of football he will implement at the London Stadium will be like night and day to what was served up under David Moyes and Julen Lopetegui.
The future is very bright indeed with Potter at the helm, I have no doubts in my mind about that.
However, the Hammers head coach will be fighting a losing battle unless he makes some ruthless decisions with one or two of the current crop of players.
And one man in particular could really hold us back in my opinion, if Potter persists with him.
West Ham man has no future under Graham Potter
Potter will be studying his players closely during training sessions at the moment.
The January window, and of course the summer one, will be vital to his hopes of building a squad capable of challenging on all fronts.
And there is one player in particular who doesn’t seem to be a great fit for what Potter’s teams have historically looked like.
Tomas Soucek is someone who might just struggle to establish himself with the former Brighton and Chelsea boss at the helm.
Signed for £19 million way in the summer of 2020 after a successful five-month loan spell at the London Stadium (WHUFC.com), Soucek was a big hit with the Hammers almost immediately.
However, he has prevented us from being able to play a possession-based system.
Don’t get me wrong, Soucek has scored numerous important goals for us, but he simply won’t work in Potter’s system.
The 49-year-old always likes a deep-lying defensive midfielder in his teams, but they have to be comfortable with the ball at their feet as well.
Just look at the likes of Moises Caicedo, Yves Bissouma and N’Golo Kante for evidence of that.
Tomas Soucek’s style not conducive with Graham Potter’s system
Soucek’s passing statistics make for pretty grim reading, and they mean that he simply won’t be able to function in Potter’s setup.
In 18 Premier League appearances for the Hammers so far this season, the 29-year-old has averaged a really poor 73.8% pass completion rate.
He has made 32.9 passes per game on average, but just 2.8 of those have been progressive. He has averaged only 0.27 progressive carries and 0.15 successful take-ons per game (FBREF).
The Czech Republic international is in the bottom eight percentile in all of those categories in the Premier League.
Soucek slows us down massively in transition, and I really don’t think Graham Potter will succeed at West Ham with the 29-year-old in the team unfortunately.
The midfielder has given his all for the Hammers and has been a truly brilliant servant.
However, it may well be time for West Ham to cut ties with Soucek now, as harsh as that may seem.
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