Credit: Imago

James Barker

Tue 24 March 2026 19:40, UK

Soungoutou Magassa is deserving of more starting opportunities for West Ham United ahead of their Premier League relegation run-in.

Joining West Ham in this season’s summer transfer window from Monaco in a reported £17.3million move, Magassa arrived with significant expectation from the Hammers faithful.

Having emerged as an important first-team player for Monaco in the two seasons prior to his London Stadium switch, the France youth international has some impressive pedigree to his name despite still being just 22.

But, the midfielder hasn’t quite been able to hold down a starting role in Nuno Espirito Santo’s side so far this season, with just 11 of his 20 league outings being as part of the XI.

However, with West Ham facing a massive final seven matches to determine their Premier League status after the international break, Magassa’s underlying numbers suggest he should still have a big role to play.

Why Soungoutou Magassa should start more for West Ham

Freddie Potts recently raved about Magassa’s quality, praising both his technical and physical abilities, which highlights how highly regarded he is within the West Ham dressing room.

Despite that, he’s not started for the Hammers in the Premier League since the 5-2 defeat to Liverpool on 28 February, restricted to substitute cameos since then.

The Hammers have some crunch clashes coming up against the likes of Wolves, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Leeds respectively before the end of the season, and those aren’t likely to be beautiful games of football to watch.

What they will more likely be are physical, ugly, scrappy encounters, with the Hammers digging in to try and win every point they can, and those games play into the strengths of Magassa.

He’s a combative and strong defensive midfielder, and as detailed by Sofascore, has handled the physical challenge of moving to the Premier League well.

Magassa has won 61 per cent of his ground duels and 57 per cent of his total duels, he’s made zero errors leading to opposition shots or goals and wins an average of 2.0 tackles per 90 respectively.

Magassa’s starting chances rest on Nuno formation choice

However, his opportunity to start more games will probably largely come down to what formation Nuno decides to go with moving forward.

Against Aston Villa last time out, he was forced to switch to a 4-3-3 after Jean-Clair Todibo’s injury in the warm-up, but Unai Emery’s side bossed the game, and central midfielders Potts and Tomas Soucek were both subbed off.

That tells the story of how poor West Ham’s midfield were at Villa Park, and so it’s perhaps likely that Nuno will revert to a back three again after the international break, and his two central midfielders rather than three.

Soucek, as below-par as he was against Villa, should keep his place in the team due to his experience and leadership, whilst Mateus Fernandes is one of the Hammers’ best players, and won’t be dropped either.

Therefore, Magassa probably needed a big West Ham performance against Villa more than most, as it could’ve told Nuno to press on with the midfield three, but now that looks unlikely.