This can’t be a coincidence, say Hammers fans. Even after their pressure, Portuguese manager Nuno Espírito Santo finally included Souček in the starting line-up.
West Ham then won two consecutive games in the Premier League for the first time since November and took an important step in the fight for survival.
The long-time Czech mainstay of the East London club did not leave the field in the matches at Tottenham and at home with Sunderland. In the course of the season so far, an unthinkable thing.
After the departure of David Moyes – the man who brought him to West Ham in 2020 and built the entire team of the later champions of the European Conference League on him – Souček has been teetering on the edge of the starting line-up for a year and a half.
The Spaniard Julen Lopetegui, the Englishman Graham Potter and, in recent months, Espírito Santo also imagined the Hammers game ideally without him. However, not one of the famous managers succeeded with this approach, which was supposed to build on more technical and straightforward footballers.
Sooner or later, everyone had to reach for Souček and his other, special attributes again.
The Portuguese manager, who after the shocking results aspired to be the fastest fired coach in the club’s history, pointed to the native of Havlíčkov Brod only in a state of extreme emergency.
For the way he treated Souček “in a humiliating way”, he received harsh criticism from fans even at the beginning of January.
“It is incomprehensible that a player with such a big heart, like Tomáš Souček, does not play in a team that otherwise does not have an iota of that heart,” the Hammers News website reported.
“It’s a crime. It’s in these tight games that Cech has been a difference player in the last six years. He’s always had a positive impact on the game and he may be very concerned about how the coaches have been treating him lately. He’s another cult hero who deserves more than being locked up in this mess,” the assessment read.
Espírito Santo, battered by previous English engagements in Wolverhampton, Tottenham and Nottingham, finally bet on Souček. He paired the tall Czech fighter with Portuguese technician Mateus Fernandes in midfield. And suddenly everything fell into place.
According to reports, Souček convinced another of his powerful opponents with his last performances. “It’s starting to settle in,” said the coach after Saturday’s 3-1 win over Sunderland. He had the reserve line in mind in particular.
“The players are starting to realize what they need from each other. Fernandes and Soucek played a really good duel in midfield. They worked hard to suppress Sunderland,” he praised. Best players of the match by mileage? 1. Souček – 11.4 kilometers. 2. Fernandes – 10.7 kilometers.
Even with a subsequent hint, Espírito Santo confirmed that in his eyes the Czech representative currently surpassed his competitor Freddie Potts.
“It is very important that we get into the opponent’s penalty area in greater numbers. And there we cause problems,” he mentioned another of Souček’s strengths – frequent additions to the offensive, especially with centered balls.
It is clear from the reactions of the fans how much they missed the football player with the number 28 on the jersey in the lineup.
“Whenever there is doubt about how much longer Tomáš Souček will last in the team, the Czech international reacts. He did it again this month,” Hammers News wrote.
“There were rumors about him leaving for Turkey. The doubters swarmed again. But Tomáš Souček never felt these things. Again and again, when he is written off, he rises from the ashes and proves everyone wrong. He is hugely important to this club: on and off the field. Players like Souček are few and far between. He sets standards and shows what it means to wear this badge on the chest,” the West account gushed. Ham Network.
Of course, the Hammers still have a lot of hard work ahead of them. Even after two wins in a row, they are 18th in the relegation zone and five points behind 17th-placed Nottingham. At the weekend, they have a derby at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea at home.
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