McAvennie baffled by Carragher as West Ham ace Soucek misses out on team of the season
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie has hit out at Jamie Carragher after the Sky Sports pundit failed to name West Ham star Tomas Soucek in his Premier League team of the season.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football at the start of this week, Carragher named Soucek as his signing of the season in the top-flight.
However, the ex-Liverpool defender then failed to name him in his best team with N’Golo Kante, Kevin De Bruyne and Bruno Fernandes getting into the midfield.
Vladimir Coufal was Carragher’s choice at right-back even though he’d also been a new signing this season but McAvennie wasn’t sure why Soucek didn’t make the team.
“He put Coufal in his team and not Soucek,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone. “He’s the best signing this season but not in the team?
“That just sums up Carragher, doesn’t it?
“No, Carragher’s probably just talking about him being the best coming through but he’s not reached [the team of the season] yet.
“Soucek and Coufal have been two great signings and supporters are now saying, ‘are there any more [Czech] players like that, have you got any pals?’. It’s great.”
Soucek has been outstanding for the Hammers this season, scoring nine goals in 36 Premier League appearances.
He’s been an absolute monster to contend with in the air with stats by Wyscout showing that the Czech Republic international has won more aerial duels than any other player in the Premier League [404].
Only one player has won more aerial duels in his own penalty box than Soucek [44] this season too with the ex-Slavia Prague ace making a massive difference at both ends of the pitch for David Moyes.
While we understand Carragher going for Fernandes in his team of the season, De Bruyne has spent a lot of injured and hasn’t done anywhere near as well as he has done in recent years. And the same goes for Kante.
In other West Ham news, Gary Neville has shared a big claim about Manchester United and Jesse Lingard.
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