Tomáš Souček found plenty of positives in West Ham United’s pre-season defeat to Stade Rennais on Saturday.
The Irons battled tooth-and-nail against a Stade Rennais side that took the lead early on, through Baptiste Santamaria’s excellent long-range strike, and it was Souček himself who levelled the match with a well-taken header on 66 minutes.
The hosts made nine changes midway through the second-half, while many of the Hammers’ side played the full 90 minutes, Souček included. The tiring legs proved a factor as the Ligue 1 team retook the lead through Arnaud Kalimuendo’s flicked finish, before Angelo Ogbonna’s unlucky own-goal late on.
While naturally disappointed with the loss, Souček could see plenty to be positive about after the Hammers came through a physically demanding test against the highly-considered French side.
“You want to play against the best teams and Stade Rennais are one of those,” the midfielder told West Ham TV. “They finished fourth in their league, and they’ve showed us that they are a good side. We are happy we can play a pre-season game against these types of teams.
“We are not obviously happy with the result but we got good minutes in our legs. It’s important for us to get into the right condition for the first game in the Premier League, so I’m happy that many of us played 90 minutes and lots of us played 65 to 70 minutes. It’s important but I also think we need to improve as well.”
Having helped the team with his finish, Souček was also handed the captain’s armband after Nayef Aguerd – who wore it from the starting whistle against his former side – was substituted in place of Italian Ogbonna.
In both instances, the Czech Republic international skipper was more than happy to help his teammates out when called upon.
“I am always happy when I can help the team with a goal. I was happy to get into that area and bring the equaliser. I suppose then I was a bit disappointed that we conceded two more in the final part of the game. But I’m happy to get on the score-sheet. I had another chance to score too and, if I can help the team in that way, it will be perfect. I hope I can do that and brings us some points.
“I’ve captained my former team and I do it for my country as well, so when I’m asked to do it for West Ham then I will always be proud to do so. It’s a big thing. But even if not, I try to do the same things on the pitch for the team. I always want to give my maximum on the pitch and I want to talk with the guys and help them out.”
Souček and the rest of the Hammers who had been on international duty throughout mid-June are now two weeks into their pre-season schedule, with the senior squad at West Ham only completely linking back up at the start of the week following the tour of Australia.
While the groups have been split due to circumstances, the 28-year-old acknowledged the work has still been relentless on the training pitches; something that is a must ahead of the new season.
“We had a really tough first few weeks of pre-season,” he added. “We’ve run a lot and we’ve done a lot of work in the gym but that is normal for this time of year. It’s how it should be and, in this game, we still had quite heavy legs from the work we’ve been doing.
“From Monday, we need to do more sprints and quick movements, which will get the legs more used to those demands. I hope we can show that in our last pre-season match, in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen, and we translate it to our first Premier League game. That is the most important thing.
“I like hard work. And, from all of the players, that’s how it should be. Especially when we get to do all it together and we’re doing the tough work, we have to take that spirit with us out onto the pitch. It’s important and everyone did really well when it comes to the work side.
“I am hopeful, in two weeks, when we start the league season, it will be easier to get the legs ready and we show more on the pitch because we will be fresher. Overall, I’m happy with pre-season so far. We just need to make sure our legs are fresh and we’re ready to go out and get results.”
