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Martin Keown slams Tomas Soucek after what he saw in West Ham 3-2 win v Silkeborg
Martin Keown wasn’t impressed by Tomas Soucek’s performance after he came off the bench in West Ham United’s 3-2 win over Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
David Moyes’ men made hard work of beating the Danish outfit on the artificial pitch at JYSK Park but first-half goals by Manuel Lanzini, Gianluca Scamacca and Craig Dawson were enough to preserve the Hammers’ perfect start in the competition.
Soucek, 27, has come under fire for his form lately and after coming off the bench to replace Declan Rice in the 63rd minute, he failed to impress Arsenal legend Keown, who was watching the game in the BT Sport studio.
Speaking to BT Sport after the game, as shown on Twitter, Keown said: “It’s just [about] finding their form, isn’t it?
“Last year, even David Moyes as a manager went to another level.
“But there’s been a dip for every one of them.
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“Rice is maybe not quite performing as he was, Soucek next to him looked a bit leggy when he came on tonight.
“It’s about finding form.”
Disappointing
Soucek’s form hasn’t been great for a while now.
He burst onto the scene at the London Stadium in January 2020 and perform well in 2020/21.
However, last season was a bit of a damp squib for the Czech Republic midfielder while his opening performances this term haven’t been great either aside from a couple of goals he scored against Viborg in the Conference League and Tottenham in the Premier League.
We all know how well Soucek can play though.
He and Rice were fantastic alongside one another in 2020/21 and Moyes needs to try and get that out of the ex-Slavia Prague ace again.
It doesn’t help that Rice’s form hasn’t been very good this season either but we feel as though so much change happened at West Ham in the summer that it might take a while for some of the more settled players to get used to their new teammates.
It will happen eventually. We’re not concerned about relegation or Rice’s value dropping off a cliff.
But things do need to improve soon.