If any player epitomises the manner in which West Ham United have started this season – 19th in the Premier League with only four points to their name – it is arguably Konstantinos Mavropanos.
Brief flashes of positivity, the odd hint of better days to come, followed almost immediately by an untimely blunder which brings all that optimism crashing back down to earth.
‘Hello darkness, my old friend’ and all that.
That 3-2 EFL Cup defeat by Wolves back in August summed it up pretty well. Konstantinos Mavropanos had defended excellently for the most part at Molineux – heading and clearing everything on his first start of the season – but undid all that good work when he left Jorgen Strand Larsen free to power in a late winner.
That has been a common problem throughout the Greek’s West Ham United career. Switching off at the worst possible moment.
Mavropanos was ‘so poor’ when gifting Michael Keane the opener at Everton, less than 20 minutes into Nuno Espirito Santo’s Hammers debut. He was slow to react, as well, when Crystal Palace paved the way for Graham Potter’s overdue sacking a few weeks ago.
And while Mavropanos ragdolled Arsenal’s £64 million centre-forward Viktor Gyokeres in his most recent club appearance, any hope that this would be a turning point in his season went up in a cloud of foul-smelling smoke as Steve Clarke’s Scotland took a big stride towards the 2026 World Cup at Hamden Park.
Greece fans hit out at West Ham United’s Konstantinos Mavropanos in Scotland loss
It really should have been proverbial meat and drink for a centre-half of his size and experience.
A high ball into the Greek box flicked on towards the six-yard area. But, rather than clear his lines, Mavropanos made the very ill-advised decision to head weakly and tamely into the path of an onrushing Ryan Christie.
And as Scotland took the lead for the first time in the 80th minute, the 6ft 4ins Mavropanos was knocked off balance by Grant Hanley in a crowded penalty area, leaving him reeling and backpedaling as Lewis Ferguson gleefully fired into the roof of the net.
West Ham have struggled to defend set-pieces with Mavropanos in their backline. Greece, it seems, are suffering from similar problems.
“Been saying he needs to be benched for months,” one Greek supporter said on X after watching a lead given to them by Kostas Tsimikas make way for a thrilling, if error-assisted, Scotland fightback. “[Panagiotis] Retsos should be a clear starter on this team when fit.
“If you didn’t understand [what happened] today, the worst players, apart of course from the former footballer [Dimitrios] Kourbelis, were Mavropanos, [Konstantinos] Koulierakis, and [star striker Vangelis] Pavlidis.
“When three of your most key players are so bad, you can’t talk about [head coach Ivan] Jovanovic.”
“Mavropanos, lately, a joke.”
“The truth is that, today, the ones who fell short of the occasion more than anyone were Mavropanos, Koulierakis, and Pavlidis.
“Mavropanos is consistently disgraceful and there is no serious reason why Retsos is not a starter in the national team by now.”
In each of his last two Greece starts, Mavropanos has now been part of a backline breached on six occasions.
Nuno Espirito Santo demands defensive improvements from the Hammers
Mavropanos is likely to keep his place in Nuno’s XI for the visit of Brentford on October 20th. He did complete a staggering 16 clearances in a thou-shalt-not-pass performance at the Emirates.
But, clearly, it is not only the West Ham fans peeking through their fingers for fear of a game-changing, and all-too-common, blunder.
“We have to learn so many things. It was a tough game. There are some positives, some things that are negative,” Nuno said after Mavropanos was M.I.A for Keane’s opener at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
“In terms of goal we conceded, we should have been more aggressive, [with] more contact close to Keane.
“Our approach is simple; [We need] the best of us, every day We are [getting to know] each other. It’s about competing for every ball. The players are slowly understanding that a football match, it’s about closing our own goal, how many chances we concede.
“That is something we have to work on.”
