Tomas Soucek tipped for surprise West Ham role after injury update – pundit
Gabby Agbonlahor has suggested Tomas Soucek could be pushed back into the West Ham defence when they take on Eintracht Frankfurt in their Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday (28 April).
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the ex-Aston Villa and England attacker claimed West Ham’s valiant display in the 1-0 loss to Chelsea on Sunday (24 April) should give them hope.
With Kurt Zouma, Issa Diop and Angelo Ogbonna are all out injured leaving Craig Dawson as the club’s only fit centre-half.
Claret & Hugh reported today (27 April) Zouma has an outside chance of making the squad for the first leg out in Germany.
At Stamford Bridge, Dawson lined up alongside Ben Johnson and Aaron Cresswell in a back three with Vladimir Coufal and Arthur Massuaku as wing-backs.
“It’s very hard for West Ham,” Agbonlahor told Football Insider correspondent Connor Whitley.
“They still have players like Soucek and Declan Rice who could drop back to centre-half if needed.
“West Ham will be fine, they’ve got good characters there.
“They had a makeshift team against Chelsea and they pushed them all the way.
“Sometimes, when you’re not a centre-half and you’re a midfielder playing in there, some players can struggle but some players can embrace it and enjoy the change.”
Soucek has operated exclusively as a centre-midfielder since his move to West Ham from Slavia Prague in January 2020 so a move into defence would be a surprise.
The 27-year-old has only missed four games across all competitions this season, notching up 46 appearances.
In other news, West Ham are racing a London club to sign a 21-year-old out of contract next year.