West Ham United manager David Moyes must finally start Alex Kral in the FA Cup fourth round clash against Kidderminster this weekend.
What’s the story?
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of the game on Saturday, Moyes said: “Alex’s been a bit unfortunate not to feature, but he had a period where he missed out a little bit with [the virus] in a period with more games. I would like to give him an opportunity to see what he can do.”
He could bully Kidderminster
Since joining West Ham last summer, the 23-year-old has been nothing more than a bit-part player for Moyes, making just five appearances across all competitions, with the caveat that he has only featured for 210 minutes in those outings.
Given the manager’s comments on the midfielder, though, it might finally be the time to actually see what he can do, starting with this Saturday.
Kral is also a player who Moyes has seemingly scouted in depth, having named him in his ‘ones to watch’ in The Times for Euro 2020.
He wrote: “He is likely to start in the Czech midfield alongside Tomas Soucek and is similar in stature to Tomas, though plays in a slightly different style. He is good on the ball and looks to protect his defence and appears to have, like Tomas and Vladimir Coufal, great mentality and bags of energy.”
The 6 foot 1 powerhouse ended the campaign in Russia last season with Spartak Moscow averaging an impressive 1.5 tackles, 1.8 interceptions and a team-high 56 passes per game, via WhoScored – a real indication of the kind of dynamism that he can bring to the midfield engine room.
A tie against Kidderminster, who are currently in the National League, may be the perfect platform for Kral to get some vital minutes under his belt, as well as some welcome confidence by dominating the game in midfield.
The £7.2m-rated machine could be the man to bully Kidderminster on Saturday.
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