Vladimir Coufal has hailed Ben Johnson for putting pressure on his place in the West Ham side with impressive performances during the full-back's injury.
Coufal has been sidelined with a groin injury but was named on the bench against both Manchester City and Aston Villa with Johnson keeping his place ahead of the 29-year-old.
Academy graduate Johnson started five consecutive games in all competitions while Coufal was struggling with the niggling issue.
During that run the Hammers beat Everton, Tottenham and Aston Villa (where the 21-year-old opened the scoring), while also knocking Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup on penalties.
Coufal is fit again and expected to start against Genk in the Europa League on Thursday, though the Czech Republic international knows his place in the side is not as comfortable as it was before his injury.
"Of course Ben Johnson is a young lad from our academy - he did well when I was injured, he played really well," said Coufal.
"I need to praise him because he scored a goal and he did really well in defence, so very, very good.
"It is also good if you want to have a successful team to double up in your positions and it's also good for yourself because when you are alone in your position you can lose motivation. And now he is pushing me and I am going to do everything for the team performance as always."
