West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek is set to miss their clash with Southampton this weekend due to a hip injury, which could be a boost for the Saints.
Soucek suffered the blow while playing against Liverpool on Monday night, with the holding midfielder now ruled out for three weeks.
According to the BBC, Soucek has suffered a low grade hip injury, which means that he will be unable to face Southampton on Saturday.
Southampton could benefit from this as Soucek has been impressive in short spell in England so far. He joined the club on loan in January and has recorded a WhoScored rating of 6.96 across his three Premier League appearances, which puts him fourth in West Ham’s squad this season.
Only Felipe Anderson, Sebastien Haller and Michail Antonio are ahead of him, which illustrates the impact he has had at West Ham since joining the club last month. He is top of their squad, for WhoScored ratings in terms of midfielders – above Declan Rice and Mark Noble. This suggests that his absence is a blow to West Ham’s midfield and that Southampton could look to expose the Hammers in that area of the pitch.
Pablo Fornals, an attacking midfielder, replaced him against Liverpool, which means that he could be an option to start in place of him against Southampton. If that is the case, Southampton could look to put pressure through the middle of the pitch and look to make the most of Soucek’s absence by picking on Noble and Rice.
Soucek has averaged four clearances per game, whilst Rice and Noble only average a combined 1.7 per game. This suggests that Southampton could also look to whip crosses in towards the edge of the box and look to catch Rice and Noble out, as they do not appear to make many clearances in Premier League matches. If Southampton have a late runner into the box, like Stuart Armstrong, he could get the better of Rice or Noble and have an effort on goal.
