West Ham’s summer signing, Jean-Clair Todibo, may have to wait a little longer than expected for his chance to shine at the London Stadium.
Whilst I expect the French central defender to start the midweek League Cup game against AFC Bournemouth, Premier League game time may be harder to come by.
Todibo’s predicament is somewhat surprising and has nothing to do with the former Barcelona player’s ability; it’s entirely due to the form of those currently occupying his position.
Max Kilman and Konstantinos Mavropanos are beginning to form a solid defensive partnership, and I suspect head coach Julen Lopetegui is quite pleased with what he’s seeing.
Fixing last season’s broken defence would have been J-Lo’s number one priority upon joining West Ham, and a clean sheet in his second game would be gratifying.
While the long-term plan is clearly to pair Todibo alongside Kilman, Mavropanos has quietly supported the £40M former Wolves captain. Perhaps he hasn’t appeared as ‘Hollywood’ as Kilman, who received a special mention on last night’s Match of The Day, but Dinos has gone about his business quietly and effectively, which means Todibo may have to wait for the foreseeable future.
I suspect it will be sooner rather than later for him, Fullkrug and Summerville.
At the moment we don’t have a lot of control at the back. City will go through us with ease I would imagine based on how easy it was for Villa and Todibo like Kilman makes those runs
Manchester City go through most teams with ease……It has nothing to do with how much control their opponents have.
Kilman was excellent against Palace. It won’t be too long before Todibo is playing alongside him.
Fullkrug and Wan-Bissaka will probably be in the starting line up next weekend, and Summerville can play wide left with Kudus tucked inside, depending on Julen’s chosen formation.
Maybe play 2 holding with Alvarez and Rodriguez seems they have partnered together before will give us more control and plug the gaps better than soucek
Agree Dino has done well in the first 2 games and to be fair none of us know what the manager will do against City. Yesterday was a prime example of that. Personally I would like to see Todibo in because of his speed against City but J Lo may be reluctant to throw him in the deep end 1st game.Fullkrug has to start Antonio has been poor
That’s ridiculous Mavropanos has a major mistake in his game and has let west ham down on several occasions! Todibo needs to be paired with kilman immediately to form a solid foundation in defense! He needs to know that he’s trusted and is valued by the manager and coaches.
Todibo should be on from the start from now.
Equally Antonio is unfortunately past it. Get in there and play signings they are champing at the bit…no excuses lots of money committed…
Nice one Gonzo, see why you’re not in the Diplomatic Corps. Again on here, excuses for the millionaire failures. I did not realize the reason for spending £150M this summer was to make last season’s failures show what they can do when they try. The best they should be hoping for is to maybe get another shot from the subs bench, while they watch the new team get on and do what we bought them for. We are playing a dangerous game if the new players don’t get the same chances those others have failed to take.
would be surprised to see us line up with a back 3 against city
guido and alvarez in a double pivot
city will have a tough time breaking that down
wouldn’t*
mavro is much better in the air
todibo better with the ball
both have pace to burn and suit lops system, nice options for the manager