West Ham leave the league with a loss! How did Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal do against Brighton?

West Ham United were very close to a complete sensation and everything was playing into their hands. At half-time the Hammers were leading 1:0 at the Amex Stadium (Brighton’s home stadium) and Manchester United were losing 0:1 at Crystal Palace. At that point, that meant West Ham were heading for sixth place and therefore the Europa League group stage. But everything went wrong in the second act!

Brighton equalised in the 50th minute, Veltman scored. In the 80th minute the Seagulls turned the game around after a goal by Pascal Gross and in the set-up Danny Wellbeck made the game all about goals. The home team won 3:1.

Manchester United failed to score a goal against Crystal Palace and lost 0:1, but retained 6th place in the Premier League thanks to the loss of West Ham. This leaves David Moyes’ charges with the last cup place.

It was a very bitter farewell to the 2021/2022 season for the Hammers, but the overall impression is not bad at all. Seventh place securing the European Conference League preliminary round is a relatively good result in a highly competitive competition.

And how did Czech players Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal perform in the match? Let’s start from the back row.

The Czech national team’s assessment of the West Ham players

Vladimir Coufal was one of the best players of the Hammers and partially made up for his failed performance against Manchester City. The prestigious WhoScored server gave him a rating of 6.42. Coufal had 77 touches of the ball in the match (the fourth highest number on the pitch), his passing success rate was 77% and he created two key passes. The West Ham right-back sent an incredible 9 centres into the Brighton penalty area (the most of any player on the pitch)!

In terms of defensive activity, Coufal won two header duels, made two successful defensive saves in a foot-to-foot duel and blocked one shot attempt by the opponent. He spent 80 minutes on the pitch and was replaced by Ben Johnson.

Tomas Soucek was given a 6.12 rating by WhoScored. In the 42nd minute he received his third yellow card of the season. During the match he made 38 touches with the ball and his pass success rate was 58%.

The Czech national captain made a total of 5 defensive saves. Twice he regained possession of the ball back to WHU after a foot to foot duel, twice he was credited with kicking the ball out of the danger area (for WHU) and blocked one shot.

Source: Livesport, WhoScored