Tomas Soucek was given a more offensive role and was back in his element right away. Will David Moyes change his tactics?

One of West Ham United’s main stars was unable to play in the match against Watford due to a card penalty. David Moyes brought on the legendary Mark Noble in place of Declan Rice, and Tomas Soucek was able to take advantage of it! He could have performed more offensive tasks than when playing in the middle of the pitch with just Rice. How did it work out?

It worked out as well as it could for West Ham and Tomas Soucek. The Hammers won 4-1 at Vicarage Road and the Czech captain scored.

On social media, fans were arguing with the pundits that Soucek’s more offensive role suited him better. The whole of West Ham can benefit from his forays into the opposition’s penalty area, as he creates an overlap in the opposition’s sixteen, which is always harder to defend.

Will manager David Moyes change his tactics because of this performance, even with the return of Declan Rice? Perhaps it would be better if it is the England international who takes on a more defensive role. By the way, check out all five goals of the game!

The prestigious stats site WhoScored gave Soucek the second highest mark of the match (8.4). During the match he had 72 touches with the ball (3rd highest number of all on the pitch), won 6 header duels (2nd highest number on the pitch), got to the end twice and one of them was a goal.

As for the passing success rate, it was at 76% and one pass was crucial. He won the ball back into West Ham’s possession 7 times (5 times he won it in personal duels and 2 times he intercepted a pass).

Tomas Soucek was fouled once during the games and made two fouls himself, he also notched 3 rebounds from dangerous positions (for WHU).

Sources