{"id":228253,"date":"2025-10-20T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228253\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T20:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:16:09","slug":"likely-to-start-his-first-game-nuno-ready-to-promote-from-the-naughty-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/228253\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cLikely to Start His First Game\u201d Nuno Ready to Promote From the Naughty Step"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whilst most of Nuno Espirito Santo\u2019s selection dilemma has centred around Callum Marshall, tonight\u2019s game against Brentford could see the recall of West Ham\u2019s great survivor \u2014 Tomas Soucek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Soucek might not be everyone\u2019s cup of tea, but tonight\u2019s Premier League fixture will be Nuno\u2019s first chance to select the big Czech. Having served his suspension, Soucek could well be the manager\u2019s answer to the question of who replaces the injured Niclas F\u00fcllkrug.<\/p>\n

Not that I believe Espirito Santo will start Soucek as a striker against Brentford<\/a>, but the deck may well be reshuffled \u2014 with either Lucas Paquet\u00e1 or Jarrod Bowen potentially playing through the middle for West Ham.<\/p>\n

Most Read on West Ham News<\/p>\n

\"Tomas<\/a><\/p>\n

West ham midfielder Soucek has seen off multiple managers<\/p>\n

Nuno Looks for Height and Grit<\/p>\n

I have to admit, I thought Soucek\u2019s time was up at the London Stadium when the Hammers appointed Julen Lopetegui last summer. Yet despite two further managerial changes, Soucek is still here \u2014 and still capable of being a match-winner.<\/p>\n

His aerial ability, in particular, is likely to tempt Nuno. With F\u00fcllkrug out, the gaffer will be looking for more height from set-pieces, while Soucek\u2019s presence will also help defend against Brentford\u2019s long throws, which are a constant threat.<\/p>\n

Soucek himself is speaking<\/a> like a man who expects to play: \u201cI hope that we have a really good Monday night and that I can come and join the team with a good performance, as it\u2019s a very important night for us\u201d.<\/p>\n

The truth is, we\u2019ve only had a brief glimpse into how Nuno operates and who his favoured players might be. But I\u2019ve got a hunch the big fella could be drafted back in tonight \u2014 and let\u2019s be honest, there are far worse players to have in a relegation scrap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whilst most of Nuno Espirito Santo\u2019s selection dilemma has centred around Callum Marshall, tonight\u2019s game against Brentford could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-228253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}