Vladimír Coufal says he is currently enjoying some of the best form of his career, after notching his seventh assist of the 2023/24 Premier League season in Sunday’s dramatic 1-1 draw at home to Aston Villa.
The 31-year-old full-back played a key role in Michail Antonio’s opener at London Stadium, whipping in a sumptuous ball from the right that found his Jamaican teammate’s head before nestling into the net in the 29th minute.
Sunday's goal contribution took his assist tally to seven in 27 games, placing him behind only Newcastle United’s Kieran Trippier (ten) for assists from full-backs this term, while also equalling his personal best in a campaign while with the Hammers, back in 2020/21.
“I need to ask the manager to put me on set-pieces, to boost my numbers even more,” Coufal joked. “I’m really enjoying my football at the moment, and it was nice to contribute to another goal this afternoon.
“But I’d swap it for the three points, of course. In the end I think we played well in the first half, and left them not really knowing what to do, but we didn’t make the most of our chances and should have scored more.
“We’re disappointed with the second half. They dominated the ball and we didn’t create too many opportunities. We had a good shape for the most part, but we could have done better in attack. There was frustration at the end, but overall we’ll take the point.”
Late drama in the capital saw what appeared to be an injury-time West Ham winner ruled out after a lengthy VAR check, while a similar outcome cancelled out a second Antonio strike early in the second half.
Though Coufal admitted there was a sense of what might have been in the dressing room following the full-time whistle, he largely pointed towards the positives of the team going four top-flight games unbeaten, with a UEFA Europa League quarter-final clash against Bayer Leverkusen to look forward to next month.
The Czech Republic international added: “The length of time we had to wait for VAR was quite difficult, because you’re on the pitch not really knowing what’s going on. We had some momentum at the end, but the break in play didn’t help that.
“But we’re on a decent run, and now we’ll go into the international break and try to come back strongly. We’re all excited about the quarter-final - Leverkusen are a great side with a great manager, and they have three Czech players, so we’ll give it our best and we’ll see what happens.”
