As the attention switches to International football, the news of Jarrod Bowen’s exclusion from England’s squad filled the attention of many West Ham fans and pundits. Another International Hammer’s selection for his national side appears almost to have slipped under the radar: He’ll be looking forward to showing West Ham fans and no doubt his boss Julen Lopetegui who dropped him from the starting XI just what he’s capable of when he lines up at the English HQ on Thursday!
Most of the focus has been on Mikey Antonio off on his travels back to Jamaica, the Czech duo both selected for games against Albania and Ukraine plus Lucas Paquetá heading back across the Atlantic to play for Brazil. Particularly in view of his not making the West Ham starting eleven against Ipswich, the forthcoming appearance of Konstantinos Mavropanos for Greece, against England at Wembley this very week suddenly became more important as the Hammers’ No.15 will want to put on a top quality exhibition just a few miles away from his home ground.
Having sat on the bench on Saturday, the West Ham centre-back will be well-rested and have probably the lowest fatigue of any of his compatriots.
He will be hoping to cut out the errors that have been creeping into his club game and kept him out of Lopetegui’s chosen back four. With the West Ham partnership of Max Kilman and Jean-Clair Todibo blossoming nicely, Mavropanos will have his work cut out to force his way back into the the Iron’s starting eleven. I’m sure he will be looking to drop a massive hint to Hammers’ head coach with a top quality defensive display against the Three Lions.
It is a little known fact that Greece come to England in brilliant form, defeating Finland and then Republic of Ireland in their first two matches of this series. Mavropanos and his team mate, Wolfsburg centre-back Konstantinos Koulierakis will be hoping to keep Harry Kane, Ollie Watkins and the rest of England’s attack quiet. Good luck with that!
England also come into the fixture as unbeaten, with recent 2-0 wins over both the Finns and Ireland. Disappointing that we won’t see a Bowen / Mavropanos match up on Thursday but the game will be shown live on ITV.
Mavrapanos is not 16, these errors you speak of that are creaping into his game. When do you think that happened then, a couple of weeks ago when he mucked up, at the beginning of the season when he embarrassed himself, last season, when he looked totally unsure. He was 4 years at the arse and made 7 appearances. Now I understand he’s young enough to improve in a defensive formation, maybe there’s a player there who given an understanding manager can coach him to play out safety first, rather than sideways/ suicide/ reverse passes, which seem to have crept into his game, maybe from a long time ago