West Ham United manager David Moyes admits he is determined to find the best way of playing midfielders Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta, and Tomas Soucek in the same side.
The Hammers’ trio have all been regulars for Moyes’ team this season, but with Paqueta playing as a No.10 in front of two defensive midfielders in Rice and Soucek.
However, in recent games, Moyes has opted to try and get Paqueta into a deeper role, playing him as more of a central midfielder which has made him more effective in games.
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In the 2-0 defeat to Brentford on December 30, Soucek was benched for the first time in the Premier League this season, with Rice and Paqueta playing alongside each other as a duo.
For the last two games, however, against Leeds United and Brentford all three have played but with Rice in the deeper role, Paqueta just in front of him, and Soucek as the most advanced of the three.
While it has led to a 2-2 draw at Leeds and a 1-0 FA Cup win over Brentford, Soucek has been largely ineffective, despite Paqueta benefitting. Against Leeds, Soucek did put the ball in the net but was a few yards offside when doing so. At Brentford, Soucek was the man taken off for winger Said Benrahma, who came on to score the winning goal in the tie.
Soucek had a good record of scoring goals, with 18 in 86 games from midfield in the Premier League prior to the start of this season. However, this year, he has netted just twice from 24 appearances in all competitions, with both goals coming in August meetings against Viborg and Tottenham Hotspur.
That tally of two is the same as Rice and Paqueta combined at club level this season, with Moyes now aiming to play Soucek in a more advanced role in an attempt to get him back scoring and find the answer to the conundrum of playing all three in the same starting side.
Moyes still thinks that of the trio, Soucek is the most capable of a goal and is willing to play him higher up in a bid to cash in on that.
“I would like to find a good balance with getting all three of them [Rice, Soucek, Paqueta] in the team if we can,” said Moyes. “I think we do need Tomas more in some games than others. But I still fancy [Soucek] out of the three of them, if you asked who is more likely to get more goals, I still fancy Soucek.
“At the moment he is not doing quite [that] just now but the other night (against Leeds) he looked closer to it, he played a bit higher up the pitch so we are really keen to get him back in goalscoring form. Goals have been a big issue for us. We see him scoring more goals than Rice or even Paqueta. We need some goals from midfield.”
Of West Ham players with ten or more attempted shots, Soucek’s attempts on target accuracy of 35.3% have only been bettered by striker Michail Antonio (38.9%) this term.
Despite that, unless Soucek can return to the goals, he is at risk of losing his place in the side, with Flynn Downes, Manuel Lanzini, and Pablo Fornals among those waiting in the wings.
“I think we want to get Tomas a bit closer to the box and get him scoring some more,” Moyes told football.london. “We tried to get a blend the other night (against Leeds) of Tomas, Paqueta, and Dec and see if we can make that work.
“I've got a good backup in Flynn Downes, Manuel Lanzini can easily be in the side as well. They give me different things but I'm needing some goals from him, that's what we're trying to do.”
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