Although Crysencio Summerville, Mateus Fernandes, Jarrod Bowen and Taty Castellanos have dominated most of the headlines, Tomas Soucek is the unsung hero of West Ham United’s revival.
The Czech veteran has not missed a single minute of Premier League football since the rock-bottom defeat at Wolves a month ago.
Soucek has ousted both Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa in the process. No matter how much things change, no matter how much the Hammers spend, no matter who is in the dugout, they always come back to Tomas Soucek eventually.
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The long-serving giant is expected to start again when West Ham United host Manchester United at the London Stadium tonight.
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Tomas Soucek says Nuno wants him to be a West Ham United ‘leader’
Speaking to the club’s official website as the 8.15pm kick-off looms, Soucek lifts the lid on the roles asked of him by Nuno Espirito Santo, and the impact made by those new signings.
“[Nuno] wants me to be a leader in the middle of the pitch,” says the 30-year-old, whose vast experience and immense work-rate gives Mateus Fernandes the freedom to bomb on.
“He wants me to be the connection with the players. I’m just in the middle of all the parts, and I just want to be compact, be together and be prepared for an offensive or defensive style of play.”
A massive presence at both ends of the pitch – in every sense of the word – Soucek has a big role to play against Michael Carrick’s Red Devils. No team has scored more set-piece goals than Manchester United in 2025/26. His aerial presence, then, will be key in both boxes.
Pablo Felipe is expected to be unavailable due to a knock he picked up during Saturday’s 2-0 win at Burnley. Nuno could push Soucek forward into a chaos-causing second-striker role, introducing Potts or Magassa in the process.
The former Slavia Prague captain cannot speak highly enough of those new additions, meanwhile.
Nuno says new signings have led to a ‘massive’ improvement
Nuno was full of praise for Axel Disasi – the Chelsea loanee stepped in effortlessly on his first top-flight start since April 2025 – while Taty Castellanos opened his Premier League account with a bullet header from a fabulous El Hadji Malick Diouf cross.
Who would YOU start if Pablo is injured? 🤕
Callum Wilson again? Fernandes at 10? A Keiber Lamadrid debut?
“It’s my position here, whoever comes [in], to make them feel comfortable to come to me, or I can go to them to help them,” adds Soucek. “As we have a couple of players who don’t speak English and come from a different part of the world.
“I’d say we are very positive. We had a few changes. A few players left, a few players arrived, but now know that this is the squad until the end of the season. This is the group we are in, and we want to fight for every point.
“I’m very happy because even the [training] sessions have improved massively. It’s very competitive, and I’m happy for that because a lot of good lads have arrived, and that’s what we needed.
“We all believe we can do it. We can manage it, and I would be so proud of that.”
Nuno Espirito Santo would not be drawn on revealing the identity of those injury doubts at his pre-match press conference.
Things appear positive around Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville, though. The two wing wizards both featured heavily on West Ham’s pre-match graphics on their official social media channels amid rumours that the in-form duo picked up knocks in Lancashire.
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