✍ Welcome Tomas Soucek

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funky chicken
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by funky chicken »

Of all the players on the pitch, Tomas showed the best skill of the night in the 1st half! :shock:
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Ethanadict
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Ethanadict »

goa127 wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 12:29 am As one of the most criticised players recently (mostly deserved) I thought it only fair to applaud his performance tonight. His passing was sharp and accurate and a good header for Mubama's goal. He looked like Tommy from 2 years ago. Of course AEK offered little resistance but credit where due
Well said.

People often form views of players and then either look for positives or negatives to back up those views, irrespective of the player’s performance. It seems this season like people can’t wait to have a moan about him.

Personally I think Soucek has had good games and bad games this season, and I’d say too many below par compared to previous seasons. But surely that’s not a reason to get on our own player’s back. He’s been so good for us in previous seasons and seems like such a nice bloke who tries to give 100% every game. No question for me, he saved us from relegation a few seasons ago.

Last night I thought he was excellent, taking responsibility for that DM position without Declan present. He ran his socks off, often broke up their play, and his headers were back to his best both defensively and of course setting up the goal.

I’m pleased for him. With fixture congestion coming, he’s important to our squad and a fit, confident Tomas can be a real asset.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by fjthegrey »

Played well yesterday.

You can clearly see what the issue is though. Their midfield didn't press him at all and it was a man down, he was under no pressure whatsoever. They had nothing going forward, was about as easy a game as you'll have as a defensive midfielder. All of his issues arise when he gets crowded put under pressure, which pretty much everyone we play in the league does, to him especially.

Would be nice to see us set up like we were yesterday a bit more often though. Where there's multiple options for the man on the ball at all times. Really helped everyone out, Soucek included, having 4-5 players moving around him wanting possession, showing intelligently and making space for one another.
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Centre Half
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Centre Half »

Played nicely in the midfield holding role, let’s face it though he won’t have an easier game for the rest of his career.

Our midfield issues are because of the fact we don’t usually have anyone with the ability to link the play together through the midfield, so we look so disjointed usually.

Lanzini is the only one that knits it together, as he did last night.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Bubbles Fortuna »

I'd be tempted to start the same midfield three against Southampton.

Paqueta Soucek Lanzini

Substitute Rice for Soucek maybe, it's becoming clear that they've stopped working together for whatever reason.

When we finished 6th they were brilliant together, now they get in each others way.

In the Summer it's probably that position that needs looking at as it's likely Rice will be gone, unless we think Downes can step up in which case we'll look for an upgrade on Lanzini.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by norse »

Tomáš Souček - trequartista
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Cockneyboy311 »

fjthegrey wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:19 am Played well yesterday.

You can clearly see what the issue is though. Their midfield didn't press him at all and it was a man down, he was under no pressure whatsoever. They had nothing going forward, was about as easy a game as you'll have as a defensive midfielder. All of his issues arise when he gets crowded put under pressure, which pretty much everyone we play in the league does, to him especially.

Would be nice to see us set up like we were yesterday a bit more often though. Where there's multiple options for the man on the ball at all times. Really helped everyone out, Soucek included, having 4-5 players moving around him wanting possession, showing intelligently and making space for one another.
:newthumb:
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by fjthegrey »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 11:07 am I'd be tempted to start the same midfield three against Southampton.

Paqueta Soucek Lanzini

Substitute Rice for Soucek maybe, it's becoming clear that they've stopped working together for whatever reason.
I mean, we should probably play our best midfielder dude. I dunno why you'd be tempted not to play him based on one decent performance vs 10 man Larnaca.

Come on now.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Cockneyboy311 »

fjthegrey wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 12:45 pm I mean, we should probably play our best midfielder dude. I dunno why you'd be tempted not to play him based on one decent performance vs 10 man Larnaca.

Come on now.
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El brooko79
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by El brooko79 »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 11:07 am I'd be tempted to start the same midfield three against Southampton.

Paqueta Soucek Lanzini

Substitute Rice for Soucek maybe, it's becoming clear that they've stopped working together for whatever reason.
Soucek over Rice :arry:
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by MB »

El brooko79 wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 1:03 pm Soucek over Rice :arry:
Can only assume a bit of fishing going on.

As others have said, pleased for Tomas but we all know what he can do against teams who don't press him.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Bubbles Fortuna »

fjthegrey wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 12:45 pm I mean, we should probably play our best midfielder dude. I dunno why you'd be tempted not to play him based on one decent performance vs 10 man Larnaca.

Come on now.
Rice has been pretty poor in the last couple of games and that midfield 3 just performed well and got a good result.

I said I'd be tempted, not that I'd do it, sometimes you drop a player to give them a kick up the ass.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by El brooko79 »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 6:54 pm Rice has been pretty poor in the last couple of games and that midfield 3 just performed well and got a good result.

I said I'd be tempted, not that I'd do it, sometimes you drop a player to give them a kick up the ass.
Think you are on the wide up tbh, but still I'll bite...
Didn't we have this after Soucek's performance vs Derby.

He will help us not loose games. Not gonna win us them.
Next 3 are games to win
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Bubbles Fortuna »

El brooko79 wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 7:08 pm Think you are on the wide up tbh, but still I'll bite...
Didn't we have this after Soucek's performance vs Derby.

He will help us not loose games. Not gonna win us them.
Next 3 are games to win
I'm not in the wind up at all. Rice will start and that's probably the right decision but I'd be tempted to drop him for one game.

Regardless only one of Rice or Soucek should be starting, that's my main point.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Gsbgsb »

Thought Soucek was one of the better players on the night. When he went over to Mubama to calm him down after his booking (the guy was so excited about his goal) it showed what a proper experienced player should be doing in looking after the youngsters.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by El brooko79 »

Bubbles Fortuna wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 7:11 pm I'm not in the wind up at all. Rice will start and that's probably the right decision but I'd be tempted to drop him for one game.

Regardless only one of Rice or Soucek should be starting, that's my main point.
Yep it's one or the other (on a back 5) but i'd try Downes above Soucek against bottom of the league.

I get what you are saying about Rice not good last 2 games.
But Soucek has averaged 29 passes per 90 mins this season. Him being a pivot would absolutely cripple us. Our passing has been poor but christ that would be awful.
All it would do is drop us really deep .

Against Arsenal yep have Soucek. We have to win games.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Burnley Hammer »

Problem with Soucek (which isn't his fault) is that he isn't much of a safety blanket due to the fact he has multiple roles that conflict. He's expected to be a screen in front of the defence, combative in midfield, and add a height presence to the attack, as well as being a fox in the box on occasion. Many times this season we've been caught out on the counter because our safety blanket is high up the pitch playing one of his other roles. In my opinion we've missed a proper number 4 this season. Someone that always stays back - a real safety blanket. Even earlier in the season when Soucek played a more defensive role, he was playing as a right sided defensive midfielder. The problem there was our left sided defensive midfielder was playing as a number 8 and usually much higher up the pitch meaning we still often had big gaps in front of the defence. In terms of his limitations, as well as his struggles to pass the ball quickly and accurately under pressure, he's also quite a lumbering presence and struggles to keep up with play when the opposition are moving the ball about quickly. Maybe as a result of those two limitations, he also struggles to get as involved in the game - frequently being one of the lowest stats on the pitch for number of touches. His Czech teammate has similar limitations which I think is a big reason why Bowen sometimes struggles to get into the game, and why we often overly focus on building up play on the left.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by Bubbles Fortuna »



I hear we're getting a loan request from Man Utd.
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by HammerMan2004 »

Took me a while to find this thread but I was bored so started looking at his contributions to games compared to Rice and Paqueta.

The sources I'm using:
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/31975 ... quet%C3%A1
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/33232 ... eclan-Rice
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/14359 ... A1s-Soucek

Numbers are not 100% accurate as they've been rounded up/down to the nearest proper number. But going back to December last year (using the Arsenal game as a stopping point for no real reason) Soucek has completed just 134 passes to teammates across the same games that Paqueta has completed 349, and Rice 568.

Only in 3 games has he actually completed more than 14 passes to a teammate and not one game in that span has he successfully passed the ball more than 22 times.

By contrast, Rice and Paqueta have never fallen below that number with the exception of 1 game when Paqueta went off injury after 14 minutes, with them both in the 30s/40s+ per game, with Rice consistently more than 50+ successful passes.

He's been an absolute passenger in our games recently. For someone that is playing in a number 10 role most of the time, we surely cannot afford him to be so ineffective on the ball.

For Moyes to recently talk about the numbers not being there for Scamacca - what is he seeing for Soucek to play so advanced?

The completed passes per game going back to Arsenal for each:

Rice:
44
40
43
58
63
22
39
47
47
22
100
43

Paqueta:
39
30
24
44
1 (injured)
24
27
39
21
61
39

Soucek:
10
9
21
20
22
12
1
4
8
14
5
8
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The Terminator
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Re: ✍ Tomas Soucek

Post by The Terminator »

This begs the question, if he isn't scoring goals what is he bringing to the table? I love Soucek but what has happened to him, is it all Moyes fault?
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