Soucek spoke at length about changing the mentality in the West Ham cabin: I started it in training, now we are a team of fighters

A good-looking player, a fighter, a leader. Tomáš Souček is considered one of the most popular footballers in the Czech Republic and England, a title he has earned with his love for the game and his friendly demeanour towards the fans. After his move to West Ham, he had to teach his new teammates a similar mentality, and he succeeded. He brought the Hammers back to the European Cup.

Soucek has developed into the best player in the Fortuna Liga in the 3.5 years since his guest stint at Slovan Liberec. He was there for the Europa League quarter-finals via Sevilla, and the season after that he and his teammates had decent battles in the Champions League with Dortmund, Barcelona and Inter Milan.

He signed for West Ham after the Sixers finished runners-up in the millionaire competition in January 2020. The Hammers were then fighting for salvation and the squad was under a blanket. Soucek had to get used to the downbeat mentality of the players in the booth and at training sessions. He was used to winning.

“A teammate tried to put a violin on me. Okay, so we’re playing parades here. I didn’t flinch in the next fight. I went into the fight. And I had the ball. Even in practice, I wanted to show that it’s not cool to lose. This is where the mentality of a team can change. If somebody wants to play for beauty, fine. But I won’t take it lying down,” reads Soucek’s confession to the website Without Phrases.

The period before West Ham’s first big wave of coronavirus didn’t work out. With Soucek only one point from three rounds, relegation was again a little closer. The season subsequently went into the summer and the Hammers got going after their opening three losses. A single loss in the final seven rounds, with three goals from Soucek, meant five extra points and salvation.

Soucek was already entering his second English season as a mainstay. He scored ten times and assisted once from the shield midfielder position, not missing a single league minute. He helped to qualify for the Europa League. He even made the eight-man shortlist for the Premier League’s Player of the Year award.

“I built my position at West Ham, got the player of the season award from the fans, scored ten goals, listened to the interest from other big clubs. I’m delighted. But more importantly for me is the fact that we have changed as a team. We wentfrom playing for salvation to a team that could succeed at any time,” continued the captain of the Czech national team.

The performance of Soucek, as well as the rest of the squad, was admirable and West Ham stayed in the Top 7 the following season. Yet coach David Moyes pulled two years with essentially 14 players playing three games in two weeks.

The players became warriors who fought week in week out for three points at the expense of their exhaustion. West Ham especially last year certainly didn’t play pretty football, but they managed to pull the development to their side. He could help himself with a corner or a direct kick.

“At West Ham I know now that nobody allows himself a parade just to make himself visible. Everyone only does it when they can help the team. Eleven fighters. We’re a team, everyone attacks, everyone defends,” Soucek says proudly.

Source: Without phrases