West Ham threw away their chance of earning a precious three points and taking a huge step towards Premier League survival this season though, on the face of it, a point will be accepted by David Moyes’ men.
The Hammers manager will have to hope that those points dropped don’t, and they shouldn’t see him also lose out on the signing of Tomas Soucek permanently from Slavia Prague. If the Hammers stay up, they will make the move to tie up his loan deal into a much longer stay in east London. From what we have seen of the 25-year-old so far, it’s a move the club really has to make.
The Czech midfielder has said himself that he wants to stay. During lockdown, Soucek said “The next step would be saving West Ham’s Premier League status and completing my transfer.
“I’ve played a few games in the Premier League and I look forward to playing many more.”
West Ham fans will hope he will be playing more after he put in another star turn, his second in a week, as West Ham made it two unbeaten with a 2-2 draw against Newcastle. The £16million the Hammers will have to pay looks an absolute steal on not just the evidence from St James’ Park but since he arrived at the club.
Soucek has slotted seamlessly into West Ham’s midfield since his signed on loan in January. Moyes wanted a new central midfielder and Soucek was his choice. Along with Jarrod Bowen, the Hammers boss made two excellent January additions that have no doubt benefitted the Hammers in their survival fight.
Moyes was asked after the Newcastle draw about his Czech midfielder and said: “Well when we got Tomas in we knew he had goals with him, we hadn’t seen it yet but then he played very well against Chelsea and then again today.
“He’s got other attributes that can help us too.”
His fitness level is one of those but Soucek also has a steel to him, a shall not be denied attitude. He won the most aerial duels of anyone on the pitch at St James' Park. If he gives the ball away, he goes and gets it back. He might give a few fouls away in doing so but it shows that he is a hard worker and gives 100 percent every week which is what Hammers fans crave from their players. Soucek is a decent passer of the ball, not outstanding but its enough, can act as a link between midfield and the front two and gets his head up early to keep things moving.
The midfield pivot of Declan Rice and Soucek certainly looks the way to go going forward for Moyes. Soucek has an engine on him and gets up and down the pitch, he offers height in the box from set pieces, has a genuine goal threat as shown by his two goals in two games and offers Rice a bit of help.
When Mark Noble plays, he can go wandering and doesn’t have the pace to get back in position and that leaves West Ham’s best player exposed. That was evident when he replaced Lanzini at St James’ Park as the Hammers' progress stalled. Not that Lanzini wasn’t having a poor game because he was, but a bit more impetus from someone like Jack Wilshere may well have been the better option.
That’s the next question Moyes has to find an answer to - who plays alongside Rice and Soucek? Is it Noble, Lanzini or Wilshere? There isn’t time to experiment with the situation the Hammers are in and three games coming up over the next nine days and Moyes’ logic dictates he will inevitably revert back to Noble.
Whether that is to the regression of West Ham as a team remains to be seen. Judging on the past two games, Noble isn’t maybe an automatic choice as Moyes or we all initially thought going forward in the relegation race. West Ham have put a four-point buffer between themselves and the drop zone and three games in nine days coming up will define their season.
Soucek isn’t going anywhere but Moyes has to find the right midfield pair to go alongside who could be the club’s talisman alongside Michail Antonio for the run in.
