West Ham United's mini-injury crisis has left supporters concerned for the remaining matches this season - but their worries are not shared by midfielder Tomas Soucek.
Aaron Cresswell and Mark Noble were forced to retire through injury as the Hammers beat Leicester 3-2 in Stratford on Saturday, thus joining a lengthening injury list that already includes Angelo Ogbonna, Declan Rice, Michail Antonio, Manuel Lanzini and Andriy Yarmolenko.Yet the Czech midfielder enforcer believes David Moyes still has enough quality at his disposal for West Ham to continue with their fight to qualify for the Champions League next season by virtue of finishing in the top four of the table.
"We have many injuries but that's football," Soucek told The Standard. "We’ve lost Declan, Angelo and we don’t know how many from yesterday. We don’t have [Andriy] Yarmolenko or [Manuel] Lanzini either but I hope that they will be ready soon.
"But it is great that we don’t only have 10 or 11 players. We have a great team and a great spirit in the changing room. We have more than 20 great footballers so it is very good that we don’t only play with these 10 players. We can be ready with 20 or more players.”
Soucek's positive mental attitude is typical of the entire squad at present. It's something that Jesse Lingard and Mark Noble have spoken about at length and has been cited as one of the key reasons why the Hammers continue to defy the odds.
And it's a trait Soucek feels will be important in the coming weeks as the season draws to its inevitable conclusion - and one which he feels helped West Ham secure three points against Leicester, as was the case six days before at Wolves, even if on both occasions they relaxed perhaps a little too much.
"I think that it is about confidence and mentality," he argued. "For the first 60 minutes [on Sunday] Leicester didn’t create anything. The last 30, we have to watch with the coaches and discover things that we need to improve.
"After an hour we felt close to a win and wanted to play with safety in mind. It can feel like we’re safe, but that is not necessarily the case."
In order to extend the winning run and continue to fight for a high finish in the table, Soucek says it is imperative West Ham plays as they have been for the first hour or each game recently - but over the course of the full 90 minutes!
"It is great that we are controlling the games and the table," Soucek said. "But I hope we will play a similar way in terms of being offensive against Newcastle.
"We have to play like we have done in the first 60 minutes. We’re safe when we still press them and play high, but if we’re in our box then the opponents can create many chances."
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