Common Sense Prevails

As any observer from a distance could tell you and anyone with the vaguest awareness of Sports rehabilitation would confirm, West Ham United's Vladimir Coufal has looked well off the pace from his usual high standards and that his recent performances have been well under par. His Czech Republic manager Jaroslav Šilhavý obviously thought so, as Vlad has been replaced for his national team's three games and instead will be able to have an unheard of 10 days full recovery time.

Given that Coufal's right back role is actually that of wing back, anything less than full physical fitness will be cruelly exposed, as it was during the game against the Brentford Thespians. A couple of weeks might not seem that much time to nurse a bruised and battered body back to full health, but being the Impaler that he is, it should be more than enough time for him to recharge his batteries.

It's a pity the Czech Republic's medical team didn't look sympathetically at Tomas Soucek as well, while he isn't obviously injured as was the case with Coufal, he is clearly showing signs of burn out, partly due to his new role in tandem with Declan Rice which has seen Rice becoming more of a forward player meaning that Soucek has to cover even more ground resulting for his late arrival for balls in the box that he previously would have been able to reach with ease.

There are no such burn out fears for the 3rd of the Czech Mates Alex Kral, in fact far from it, he will be itching to play for his country and also be mindful that David Moyes may choose to select him to play a full midfield holding role in the future in order to enable Rice and Soucek to play with more fluidity.

Hopefully Jaroslav Šilhavý will continue to look kindly on his remaining Hammers contingent and ensure they are used correctly. - Ed