It seemed typical of West Ham United’s rotten luck that new signing Tomas Soucek limped off injured at Anfield.
The Czech signed on loan in January with the option to buy for £13million in the summer if West Ham stay up (BBC Sport).
Soucek has been a revelation since arriving. He made an instant impact against Brighton in a game West Ham should have won comfortably.
He ran eight miles in the defeat at Manchester City – the most ground covered by any Hammers player for six years.
West Ham’s Duracell man
And then against Liverpool he was West Ham’s star player in the first half as David Moyes’s side went in level at the break.
In the first half he picked up a thigh injury and tried to play the second half but couldn’t.
As Hammers fans were cursing their luck, the man they have been calling for Moyes to play – Pablo Fornals – emerged as Soucek’s replacement.
Supporters have been baffled by Moyes’s treatment of Fornals. The Spaniard had been West Ham’s best player for two months before the Scot arrived.
Pablo proves West Ham fans right
But Fornals has been frozen out since the manager’s return and didn’t even make the squad against Manchester City.
Fornals wasted little time proving West Ham fans right. Brilliant in possession, excellent in the pass and his usual tenacious workrate meant West Ham did not suffer the loss of Soucek as severely as many feared.
Moyes cannot argue it was shrewd judgement given the fact he left him out of the previous game.
But the manager must get credit for looking to him first when he – for once – had other options available.
Moyes stumbled across answer but must stick with it
He may have stumbled across it but Moyes has just discovered the answer to life without Soucek as a result.
And this is where Fornals should have been playing all along.
Fornals played in that position for Spain’s Under 21s in the European Championship last summer and was one of the stars of the tournament as they were crowned winners.
If it is good enough for Spain, it is good enough for West Ham.
Moyes must now trust Fornals from the start against Southampton, a game the Hammers simply have to win.
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