If there is one irrefutable aspect to this West Ham United squad, it is the immense amount of character within it.
Driven by their collective mentality, Tomáš Souček and his teammates are still going strong in the Premier League - sitting in fifth place – and the Emirates FA Cup, and are also awaiting their first-ever UEFA Europa League round of 16 draw on Friday.
And while the Czech Republic captain conceded that the Irons wanted wins, rather than draws, in their last two league outings – 2-2 away at Leicester City and 1-1 at home to Newcastle United respectively – they still had the resilience to claim valuable points from both games.
Morale, according to Souček, remains as high as ever, with the 26-year-old telling whufc.com: “We want to keep the spirit that’s been here for the last two years, I think.
"We cannot give up after a few [tough] games. We still got points from those games.
“We want to keep going hard, so our spirit has to be at a high level and not drop, because team spirit is one of the main reasons we are here now.
“We’ve done some different things during training at Rush Green with how we want to play and what we want to develop, and I think this can improve us as a team, how we play and how we want to play.
“We struggled with keeping the ball and creating chances against Newcastle, but we’ve been working hard to do our maximum, and we want to transfer that to the next game.
"That’s the best thing we can show against Wolves.”
West Ham’s next test in the Premier League, as Souček refers to, is at home to an in-form Wolverhampton Wanderers side who have won six of their last eight Premier League games, including eye-catching victories over Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester.
Bruno Lage’s side have produced such results in intriguing fashion; after 24 league matches, they have both scored and conceded less than a goal per game on average.
Their tally of 23 goals scored in that time is the Premier League’s third-lowest total, but their defensive record of just 18 goals conceded is the division’s second-best, behind only Manchester City's 17.
Souček is therefore aware of the kind of threat which seventh-placed Wolves pose, and is expecting another tough battle at London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
“They are good on the ball and can play in a different style,” the No28 said of Wolves. “They sometimes play with five defenders, so it’s different, but I’m expecting a high level from them.
“When they’ve conceded the second-fewest goals, it’s possible that you will not have too many chances. We’ll need to score from the first or second big chance.
“In another way, we’ll need to not concede, because we might not create maybe the chances for four or five goals, but I think it will be a very competitive game and we will need to be clinical.
“I’m sure that we can beat them because when I see us, we are hungry to win, and we still want to fight for the high positions in the table.
"I’m expecting a really tough game, but I believe that we can beat them, and I hope that it happens.”
Before then, West Ham will discover the identity of their opposition in the Europa League round of 16, with the draw set to take place at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday.
Eight play-off round second-leg ties will have been completed on Thursday 24 February, with continental heavyweights including Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Sevilla, Napoli and Lazio all still in the running after their first legs.
An enthusiast for the competition, having reached the quarter-finals with former club Slavia Prague in 2018/19, Souček is looking forward to a mouth-watering occasion for West Ham players and supporters alike – and is eyeing one club in particular.
He smiled: “I’m looking forward to the draw, because I’ve been watching the games in the round before us. Teams still have their second legs on Thursday, so I’ll watch them, and also I will watch the draw if it’s possible.
“I’ve thought about a few teams I would like to play against, and if I could say one, it would be Rangers, because I want to play against them as a big rival.
“It could be a really good game for teams from England against Scotland, big rivals! It would be a really exciting game for the fans and also for us.
“This team could be good, but everyone we could draw at this stage of the competition will be difficult to face because they have had to win many games to go through.
“Let’s see – I look forward to it!”