Tomáš Souček has finally silenced the critical voices! How did his West Ham beat Wolves and who did he give his birthday goal to?

West Ham United are not having an easy time. Moeys’ scoring machine has started to stutter a bit in recent weeks and then there was the scandalous behaviour of Kurt Zouma, who shocked the public with his aggressive behaviour towards his cat. This time, however, the Hammers scored with the fans and Tomas Soucek also played a big part in the 1:0 victory.

The goal of David Moyes’ charges was clearly to win and defend the position that ensures West Ham’s fight for the dream Top 4. However, the hungry wolves arrived at the London Stadium looking to break through to at least the top 6 teams in the Premier League.

Before the game, the Hammers backed their teammate Andriy Yarmolenko, who for obvious reasons asked David Moyes for a day off, who immediately obliged. The war in his home country of Ukraine has hit him hard. The club, understandably, supported him, and the players took to the field in a special kit with Yarmolenko’s name and number.

The West Ham starting eleven was missing Vladimir Coufal, who is recovering from groin surgery. Who, on the other hand, did not miss the field is the sin-binner Kurt Zouma. However, since the incident with his cat, he has been playing like a partes and is one of the best players of the Hammers.

The home team created more scoring opportunities during the game. Although Wolves outshot West Ham 14:13 on aggregate, the first shot that flew between the three posts didn’t come until the 87th minute. The fact that the home team won deservedly is confirmed by the xG (1.7::1) for WHU.

The Hammers decided the match in the 59th minute after a nice team combination, which saw the duo of the two most criticized men of the last weeks. Striker Michail Antonio found a lurking Soucek with a precise pass and he stretched his long leg to deliver the ball into the net. The critics’ voices are gone!

A week ago, one of WHU’s biggest fan sites even posted an offensive tweet about the Czech national team captain, which many believe went beyond the limits of all respect. “If Soucek was 170 cm, he would be playing League 2 (the fourth highest competition in England) ” Critical voices were also directed at the head of West Ham forward Michail Antonio, who has been experiencing a shooting slump lately.

To whom did Tomas Soucek dedicate his goal? And how did he do according to statistical indicators?

“Birthday goal brought us an important win,” tweeted Tomas Soucek with joy. Who did he give the goal to?

“This goal is probably the best present I could give to the fans. But also for my grandfather who came here for the first time. He has been supporting me since I was a kid, so this goal is for him,” he told the club’s website.

As far as statistics are concerned, the prestigious WhoScored server gave Soucek the highest mark of all players on the pitch (8.15). During the match he had 35 touches with the ball, his passing success rate was around 73%, he made two key passes and twice got on the end line.

In terms of defensive activity, the Czech midfielder intercepted four passes from the opponent and blocked one shot.

Source: West Ham United, Tomas Soucek, WhoScored, The Analyst