Soucek: I like it when minor fouls are let go. It makes the game have more momentum

He was the best defensive midfielder in the Czech Republic, so West Ham took a chance on him and made him a Premier League star. Tomáš Souček could talk about fouls, defensive tackles and breaking up play, but at the moment he’s praising himself for playing outside the Fortuna League.

There has been a lot of talk in Czech football about net time in recent years. Slavia complained about Viktoria Plzeň’s big stalling in the 2021/22 extra-time season.

However, it is far from just that match. Referees in the Czech Republic have been whistling a lot of half fouls and simulated jumps for a long time. This hinders the flow of the game and, especially at the end of games, allows the leading team to stall.

“I watch mainly Slavia and I see that the referees whistle a lot more fouls. I saw some statistics where the Czech team had 20:25 fouls and in England it was 6:8,” said Tomas Soucek on the Total Podcast.

The Premier League and especially the Championship are on a different level in this respect, the second English competition is one of the toughest in the world, while the first is more technical and is played by such top players that there are not many interruptions.

“It makes a big difference, the game has more momentum. The players are more tired because they go into open defence. I like it when the game is letting go,” continued the captain of the Czech national team.

The referees in the Czech league don’t seem to know what they want to whistle in recent years. In the autumn part of last season they were criticised for not punishing brutal interventions enough. Of these, Martin Cedidla’s on Ewerton stood out.

In the spring, they set the opposite standard, ejecting perhaps too many, specifically for unintentional interventions that smacked of brutality but were not downright vicious. Fans have criticized both methods, no happy medium has been found yet.

“Of course no sneakiness, the bar has to be set. If it’s sneaky, feel free to give a yellow or red card, but I would let minor fouls go,” Soucek said.

But to reduce the number of fouls, we need to get there gradually. It is also related to a detail that at first glance is crucial – to stop players from swearing at referees. Any such behaviour should be immediately punished with a yellow card, the player has no right to swear at the referee.

Source: Total Podcast