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Super Season for Tomas Soucek Just Keeps Getting Better

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Fri, 09/04/2021 - 13:23

Scoring goals isn’t really what defensive midfielders are about, so Tomas Soucek obviously didn’t get the memo. West Ham United have had the odd Czech Republic international turn out for the team down the years, but nothing quite like this.

Ludek Miklosko played between the posts at Upton Park for most of the ‘90s, earning Hammer of the Year honours for 1991. He famously put in a Man of the Match display in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United which handed the Premier League title to Blackburn Rovers on the final day of the 1994-95 season too.

Tomas Repka did little to disprove the stereotypes attached to defenders from Eastern Europe during five years with West Ham in the early 2000s. He picked up the first of four red cards while at the club on his Hammers debut no less, but at least remained in East London and put relegation out of the Premier League right by helping them earn promotion back.

That’s more than Radoslav Kovac did when West Ham again dropped down from the top flight into the Championship in 2011. Soucek, a surprise source of goals from deep-lying midfield, has 13 goals and counting for club and country this season.

While today’s prediction of value Premier League goalscorer bets often still overlooks him, this kind of form isn’t such a shock if you dig a little deeper. At previous team Slavia Prague, Soucek managed 12 goals in 26 games across all competitions in the first half of last season before he moved to the Hammers on loan. That’s a ratio just shy of one in two which most strikers would be proud of! During the 2018-19 campaign, only one domestic footballer netted more times than Soucek in the Czech First League. No wonder Slavia did the double that season, and there’s no prizes for guessing who opened the scoring in the cup final.

It’s true that he took penalties for his last club, which contributed to an impressive 30-goal tally in his last 18 months in Prague, but this is more than just a purple patch. Soucek might just be one of the best-value finds for a relatively modest £19,000,000 in recent Premier League history.

David Moyes isn’t the only beneficiary either. Away to Estonia in the Czechs’ first 2022 World Cup qualifier, Soucek hit a hat-trick in little more than 15 minutes either side of half-time, which took the game completely away from the hosts. This is a footballer entering his prime, having just turned 26. Soucek had nine Premier League goals going into the March international break, putting him above recognised forwards Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen, who cost West Ham a similar amount up front when purchased from Hull City. Yet he still goes under the radar, because Hammers winter window loan signing Jesse Lingard has made a big impact since linking up with old Manchester United boss Moyes. Soucek is all action in the engine room, and more prolific than compatriot and fellow Czech Golden Ball winner Tomas Rosicky ever was across London at Arsenal. Long may it continue! -Ed

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