West Ham United head coach Graham Potter has praised one of our players who has consistently received huge criticism this season.
Graham Potter masterminded a fantastic 3-2 win for West Ham over Fulham in the Premier League on Tuesday night.
Potter laid the gauntlet down to his starters by praising the professionalism and performances of all four substitutes on Tuesday night.
The 49-year-old has already made a huge impact at the London Stadium.
The first two performances with Potter at the helm were like night and day from what we saw during Julen Lopetegui’s tenure.
However, there are certain players who could undermine his Hammers tenure with their consistently poor performances.
Konstantinos Mavropanos is one of those players in my eyes – he has been in really poor form for West Ham this season.
The Greek centre-back has been criticised by fans and pundits alike this term, with Gabby Agbonlahor describing him as a ‘terrible player’.
Graham Potter’s verdict on West Ham’s Konstantinos Mavropanos
The Hammers still didn’t defend as well as I would have liked against Fulham. Konstantinos Mavropanos looked shaky throughout the match, although he did show some bright moments.
I just get pangs of worry in my stomach whenever the ball is near Mavropanos, and that says everything about him as a player really doesn’t it.
However, Potter surprisingly praised the 27-year-old centre-back after the game, as quoted by WHUFC.com:
“Konstantinos [Mavropanos] was aggressive.
“So they were really, really good, and I think that helped us get a couple of goals in the first half. That was a nice foundation to start the game as well.“
That really does surprise me from Potter.
Don’t get me wrong, Mavropanos was certainly better in spells against Fulham, and he did play with real aggression.
However, he’s a disaster waiting to happen on the most part.
Mavropanos must improve to succeed under Graham Potter
He should have dealt with the ball from Alex Iwobi into our penalty area just after half-time.
Instead, he let it go, expecting Lukasz Fabianski to come and collect, and the ball ended up in the back of our net.
On paper, Mavropanos has everything needed to succeed at the very highest level. However, he’s nowhere near consistent enough to be a regular starter in the Premier League for the Hammers.
I’m positive that Graham Potter will soon realise that, and I expect Konstantinos Mavropanos to leave West Ham in the summer, unless he shows drastic improvements.
He needs to buck his ideas up in three different areas in my opinion – his concentration levels, positional awareness and he must show more composure rather than rushing into reckless challenges.
Signed for £20 million in the summer of 2023 (Evening Standard), Mavropanos has made more individual errors than he has put in solid performances for us.
Whether or not the Greece international is able to cut the silly errors out of his game remains to be seen though.
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