WHZ View: Vladimir Coufal has solved this 20-year long problem at West Ham
The past 15 months for West Ham have been nothing short of extraordinary as David Moyes has seemingly got everything spot on.
Since coming back for his second reign, the Scot has taken us from battling relegation to being right in the hunt for European football. Such success comes down to numerous changes at different levels of the club. The biggest change? Our approach in the transfer market.
There have been six notable additions to the squad since January 2020. Jarrod Bowen, Tomas Soucek, Said Benrahma, Vladimir Coufal, Craig Dawson and Jesse Lingard have all be welcomed to Rush Green and have made lasting impacts.
In particular, one man who’s caught the eye is Coufal. A £5million signing from Slavia Prague, the man has single-handedly solved an issue we’ve had for as long as we can remember. We haven’t had a good right-back for about 20 years.
Flying forward
As recently covered on West Ham Zone, Coufal plays a pivotal role in driving us up the pitch. The Czech has registered three assists in the Premier League so far, but has provided countless other chances for his teammates.
According to Adam Smith, Coufal has created the second most opportunities at the club with 28 so far. They also found that 37% of our chances have come from down the right flank, it is our main attacking threat.
The defender has covered the fourth most distance of anyone at the club. He’s run 256.6km in the top-flight, despite missing the first four games of the season. He also ranks within the top 30 in the entire division, not bad considering the first month of the season he was playing in the Czech top division.
Defensively he’s been fantastic. 122 interceptions and 211 possession recoveries so far for West Ham [WyScout]. Arguably most impressive of all is that he’s picked up just two cautions all season, and they came in his first three games.
When you consider Coufal has played Jack Grealish, Wilfried Zaha, Sadio Mane, Raheem Sterling, and Son all twice (amongst others) this is a really impressive return. He’s an old school classy defender who doesn’t give away many fouls.
As well as his ability to defend and attack, his all-round attitude is everything that West Ham fans ask for in their players. You only had to see how distraught he was to lose away to Manchester City, he was inconsolable.
It’s also been reported that he arrives at the training ground on his days off quite often to continue to work. Overall, this attitude has lifted the club, he is a warrior with a winners mentality.
Over the last 20 years, we’ve had some very suspect characters at right back. Guy Demel, Carl Jenkinson, Sam Byram, Julien Faubert, the list goes on. It seems as though finally we’ve found peace. All for £5million, daylight robbery.
In other West Ham news, Antonio will be crucial in our clash with Manchester United this weekend.