**Tomáš Souček surprised fans with his positive substitute cameo as a striker on Sunday afternoon against Newcastle.**
West Ham United were 2-1 up an hour into the game against Newcastle, with the idea of holding on to the lead and getting our first home win in eight months. Nuno surprised fans when he replaced the tiring Callum Wilson with Tomáš Souček up front.
Hammers fans were equally as surprised when the Czech Republic captain actually did a good job as a number nine. He managed more touches in the opposition box than Wilson despite playing half the time, he held the ball up, did a couple of nice flick ons to his fellow attackers and obviously scored the goal that secured all three points for Nuno’s team. Souček could be a great striker option off the bench till we can sign a new one in January.
Could Souček’s new role at West Ham be substitute striker. Unfortunately, the club legend has no place in midfield at this current time, Nuno has to stick with the Potts, Fernandes and Paqueta trio and make that the engine room for the Hammers, Soungoutou Magassa should also be ahead of the Czech in the midfield pecking order.
However, as much as we don’t want to see him start in his current form, there shouldn’t be one West Ham fan that doesn’t want to see his name on the bench. Souček doesn’t have the most quality, but he’s clutch, he always scores important goals and he did just that yesterday,
Whether or not he comes on as a striker again, or in his natural central midfield position Tomáš Souček is always going to impact games both offensively and defensively. You can bring him on when you’re looking to hold onto a lead like on Sunday, his height helps him win headers in the attacking and defensive thirds. He’s the perfect man to have in the box when defending corners.
He’s also the perfect man to have in the box when attacking corners, his height, his movement and his heading ability is second to none in the squad. He’s also a good box crasher, exactly what we saw on Sunday which led to the third and the three point clinching goal. We’ve seen over the past five years in claret and blue just how good he is at making an impact on the pitch, he isn’t quite the same player he was a couple of years ago, but even if his form drops off completely, he’s always going to be able to make his mark games, score important goals and win important headers.