Tomáš Souček insists he and his West Ham United teammates are ready to put a challenging start to 2025/26 behind them by signing off for the international break with a positive performance and result at Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon.
The Hammers have fallen to three successive defeats, but a midweek Carabao Cup trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers in particular offered glimpses of the squad's quality. Souček was on target as West Ham came from a goal down to lead at Molineux, only for two late Wolves goals to knock the Hammers out and leave us winless this season.
No28 acknowledged that the whole team needs to be more consistent across the whole 90 minutes going forward, starting at the City Ground.
That has certainly been among the messages in training ahead of the trip north to the East Midlands, and though they are set to face a side who qualified for Europe with a seventh-place finish last term, and have recorded a win over Brentford and a draw at Crystal Palace in the first two matchweeks of 2025/26, Souček remains confident the Irons can quickly recapture the sort of form that saw them impressively power to four wins in their five pre-season outings.
Just under 3,000 members of the Claret and Blue Army are set to travel to the City Ground for the clash against the Tricky Trees, and the Czechia international captain is clear that everyone at the Club is determined to put a smile on all their faces ahead of the two-week break in play.
Souček said: “It’s our last game before the international break, and it’s a big chance to show what we’re about. We've had a few days back in training after the Wolves game, and we’re all hugely motivated to do everything we can to get the right result now.
“We know we have to be more consistent across the whole match. This is the Premier League, and we know that we can't afford to switch off at any point of any game. We have to show our quality and character across the whole match. That is the challenge now, and that is one of the things we have been working on.
“Of course, we all want to turn things around. I've seen plenty of character in the team, and we always speak to each other in training and before and after games. It's up to us to accept responsibility for things so far, and to turn things around.
“My message to the fans is that I love them. They are incredible, and we're going to need them on Sunday. Hopefully together we can get the win we all want.”
You can watch Sunday's 2pm BST kick-off live in the UK on Sky Sports Premier League or listen live on BBC Radio 5 Live.
