West Ham United: Perry Groves slams Konstantinos Mavropanos for what he did v Fulham, ‘shocking’
Perry Groves slammed Konstantinos Mavropanos for his “shocking defending” as West Ham fell to a 2-0 loss at home to Fulham.
The Greek defender failed to cut out a cross from Alex Iwobi, instead knocking it into the path of Andreas Pereira to fire home.
West Ham did not recover and conceded to another Pereira goal in the second half, with the visitors seeing out a 2-0 victory at London Stadium.
Speaking on talkSPORT [14 April], Groves said: “The ball is coming from Iwobi from the right-hand side and comes to Mavropanos – put your laces through it, get a firm side foot, get it out the 18-yard box.
“He’s not even aware that Pereira is behind him so as he’s taken his touch it’s gone back across goal. Another cardinal sin, you don’t put the ball back across your own goal. It’s shocking defending from Mavropanos.”
West Ham lose ground on European spots in Premier League
As Groves says, Mavropanos should have just been clearing his lines rather than taking any chances. In fairness to Pereira, he did well to keep his cool, round Lukasz Fabianski and blast home.
The first and second Fulham goals came about in similar circumstances, with possession turned over high up the field and the ball ending in the back of the net through Pereira.
It is another disappointing defeat for the Irons on the back of going down 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie.
Should the Irons fail to overturn that deficit in Thursday’s (18 April) second leg, the season would have crumbled in the space of a week.
David Moyes’ men are two points behind Newcastle United and Manchester United in seventh and eighth respectively, having played a game more than both.
More defending like this and the Irons can have no complaints if they were to finish even lower.
In other West Ham news, an update has been shared on George Earthy after he was stretchered off against Fulham.
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