Tomáš Souček felt elements of West Ham United’s performance at Manchester City on Saturday gave cause for encouragement – but admitted his side cannot concede goals with the regularity that they have hit the east Londoners’ net over the turn of the New Year.
Following on from a 5-0 defeat to runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool to end 2024, the New Year started with a 4-1 loss at Etihad Stadium, as Erling Haaland’s brace was sandwiched by Vladimír Coufal’s unfortunate own goal and Phil Foden’s strike.
Niclas Füllkrug pulled one back from Souček's cross 19 minutes from time – converting one of the visitors’ 17 attempts on goal in Manchester. It was that stat which the midfielder – captain of the Hammers in Jarrod Bowen’s absence – says can be taken as a positive, especially as that outranked the hosts’ tally by seven.
But with four goals coming from City's ten attempts, the Czech knows the team first needs to tighten up.
“Today is a sad day for us because we had a couple of chances to go ahead [and we didn’t take them],” the No28 reflected. “I had a big chance [and so did Mohammed Kudus before], and then we conceded a deflected goal, so that was a unlucky moment for us.
“We had a game plan, how we wanted to play, how we wanted to show ourselves, and I think we tried to play with the ball a lot.
“We created the chances, so it was good at the start, and even in the second half, we played very well in many minutes but at the end, we conceded four goals, and that just can't happen.
“So we have a game plan that we want to stick to. We train every day on that, but the results are even more important.
“The number of shots we had is positive, because we played Manchester City away. It's always one of the hardest games, and we have to take some positivity [from the game], how we sometimes played from the goalkeeper, how we could create the chances, and then we have to concentrate more on defending our own goal.”
Despite the final outcome, Souček was proud to be asked to lead the team out as Bowen recovers from a fracture to his foot suffered in the post-Christmas defeat by Liverpool.
With an FA Cup third-round tie to come at Aston Villa on Friday, before quickfire home London derbies back in the league against Fulham and Crystal Palace the following week, the No28 knows there is no time for the Hammers to lick their wounds with the games coming thick and fast.
He added: “I really appreciated [having the armband], because I've been here five years, same as Jarrod, and he's our captain, and he still is.
“We miss him, he's a great player, and a great guy as well, and I just want to show that I can step up for him and lead the team.”
