One of the overlooked issues in the last, frenetic minutes against Southampton as West Ham scrambled for an equaliser was the goal-line collision which landed one key member of the West Ham line up on the treatment table.
A collision between the Saints ‘keeper and West Ham’s Dinos Mavropanos had the Greek defender clutching his leg in agony as the final seconds ticked by. In truth it was a pretty brave save by Daniel Peretz which saved his side a point as he blocked Engels’ glancing header with Mavropanos bearing down on him.
Sadly it looks as though the collision could have far reaching consequences for Nuno’s side.
As revealed by ExWHUEmployee this morning, the news out of Rush Green’s medical centre is not great.
“West Ham have been dealt the worrying news that Konstantinos Mavropanos has had to have a scan on a knee injury picked up in the last moments of the game on Saturday whilst challenging the keeper for the ball,” stated the insider.
Goal line collision which left Dinos Mavropanos clutching his leg
“The scan should determine the extent of the injury and our medical source described it as: Its not months and months, but it’s weeks unless we get a miracle.”
The problem for West Ham is that their failure to replace loanee Axel Disasi whilst simultaneously loaning out Jean-Clair Todibo means they have nobody ready to step up in Mavropanos’ absence. Would-be centre back loanee Morato has now cemented a place at left back – leaving only teenager Airidas Golambecks as the squad’s available centre back.
Golambeckis performed well in the Carabao Cup fixture, but it is a big ask of the 18 year old to expect him to fill in for Dinos- who may be out for the games against West Bromwich Albion, Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers ahead of the next international break scheduled for 8th – 20th of November.
Alternatively a makeshift centre back could be utilised with both Edson Alvarez and Soungoutou Magassa having carried out the role at their previous clubs.
Ironically – considering Dinos’ huge workload in the last international break – the two week domestic break might give Mavropanos the additional recovery time required to return for West Ham’s game against Preston North End on 21st November.
Worrying times: Especially with Mavropanos’ goals as well as his defensive ability likely to be missing from the Irons’ next three fixtures at the very least.
Good opportunity for Golambeckis if he can take it.
This just tops the poor decisions by the ref on Saturday. So he gives a free kick instead of a corner for what was just a coming together and it’s our player that is badly hurt! If that’s what the refs are now like in the Premiership I would rather watch Championship football with Championship refs.
More concerning is playing the utterly useless Kilman
Nope. Kilmans been great all season.
Huge Blow West Ham feared most – Are you kidding. Personally, I welcome the news because, like most West Ham fans, I know that Nuno is incapable of assessing a players real value and will not change unless he is forced to. We have one of the worst defences in the top two tiers of English football and that is down to the choice of Hermansen, Walker-Peters, Mavrapanos, Kilman and Morato. The reason Mavrapanos sometimes looks good is because Kilman and co. are so bad. Kilman can make me look good. The only positive about Mavrapanos is that he will probably be the last of these five to go, but not because he is good, he is just the best of Nuno’s favourites, and that is no recommendation. As for fantasy stories about the Turks wanting Mavrapanos, if only it were true.
Alternatively, move Morato to his “official” position in the centre & bring in Boiro at left back. Not that I am opposed to seeing Golambeckis being given his chance.
Drop killman. Put Morato and the youngster as central backs and give the lad we signed a chance at left back ( biro or whatever his name is) we got him as cover…. use him. And while we’re at it stick Areaola back in goal. He’s a shot stopper and we’re letting teams take a lot of shots and we don’t have the players to play out from the back anyway
There you go Nuno.. that can’t be any worse than your selection can it
Could be a blessing in disguise, give young Golambecks a run, and score from one of his long throws ins, that will be as dangerous as any Bowen or Engels corner.
I’d look at Magassa or Alvarez to see if they fair better in the back four than Kilman, whilst ok at Championship level, Kilman is a damaging influence on Dinos and the rest of the defence
When Dinos comes back in December, hopefully he’ll have a new partner to inspire him to last season’s efforts, and move young Golambecks to right back, so we still have the long throw in threat
Maybe a shake up in defence could be a chance to see if we have an alternative. Mav is good but does make some errors in defence ?
Dinos has proved his commitment in the Championship – we wish him a speedy recovery