West Ham midfielder Tomáš Souček opens up on goal-scoring nightmare and Europa League

Tomáš Souček wants to get back to scoring goals and helping his teammates win games.
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West Ham’s hard-working midfielder Tomáš Souček says he is hoping to get back amongst the goals to help the push in both Europe and the Premier League.

Tomáš Souček scored 10 goals and provided four assists in his first season with The Irons, helping them to an impressive sixth place finish in the league - which meant the east London club qualified straight into the Europa League group stage.

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The Czech captain has managed just one goal in his last 19 appearances for both club and country, and is targeting a return to scoring form when they face Genk in the Europa League.

"I just want to make it [my finishing] more precise and the goals will definitely come again," Soucek told Gol.

"The important thing is that the team wins and we perform well.

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"I hope to score a goal when needed, not when we lead 2-0 to make it 3-0. [I want to] score a winning goal.

"I’m glad we’re still up there, and I hope we can stay there a long time. We share it with the best teams.

"West Ham played for a long time around the twelfth, thirteenth positions [and] two or three years back almost fell [out of the Premier League].

“Last year was the club’s most successful season in the Premier League, so we can’t say we are always in the top six.”

Previous matches against Belgian sides

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West Ham United face Belgian opposition for the third time in European competition on Thursday evening.

The Irons’ two previous meetings with clubs from the country were both historic occasions, with La Gantoise – now KAA Gent – providing West Ham’s first-ever competitive European opposition back in 1964, and RSC Anderlecht doing so in the 1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup final.

The Irons may not have met KRC Genk since the club’s foundation in 1988, but the Hammers did meet one of the two clubs who merged to form tonight’s visitors – Thor Waterschei.

John Lyall took the Hammers to the pre-season Arminia Bielefeld Tournament in early August 1983, where they were beaten 3-1 by Dutch side Ajax in the semi-finals.