BBC pundit blasts ‘really poor’ Konstantinos Mavropanos after West Ham United incident v Bristol City
Danny Gabbidon has blasted “really poor” West Ham United defender Konstantinos Mavropanos after his “bad” back-pass led to Bristol City’s opener in their FA Cup replay on Tuesday (16 January).
West Ham United were looking to secure their place in the fourth round but made hard work of their task after a tremendous start from the home side at Ashton Gate, led by the raucous atmosphere from the home fans.
The Robins took a surprise lead when Mavropanos gave away a poor back-pass which left goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianksi short before Tommy Conway took advantage of to score into an empty net.
The Hammers were without key players Jarrod Bowen, Lucas Paqueta and Mohammed Kudus through injury and international duty and it showed as the home side dominated an error-strewn David Moyes team.
And Gabbidon speaking, live on BBC Sport’s coverage of the game (16 January, 7:49 pm) blasted the Greek summer signing for his “bad” mistake.
He said: “It’s the tale of two bad back passes. There’s the initial one there and there’s a good clearance forward. That’s really poor by Mavropanos and he nicks in.
“Great composure [by Conway]. I thought he might have gone down for a penalty but he stays on his feet. It’s a tight angle but it’s a really confident finish and there’s nothing Fabianski can do there.”
What are you doing?
That was shocking from Mavropanos who made a poor decision knowing his team were going to be under pressure from the off and to leave Fabianksi short there was simply not good enough.
The Greek international has largely impressed when deployed by Moyes since his summer move from Stuttgart and has shown he is very capable when playing out from the back but not on this occasion.
When you know you’re under the cosh from teams such as Bristol City in a knockout tie away from home, you simply cannot be dallying on the ball like Mavropanos was and Moyes will be incredibly disappointed after his mistake.
It was a rather poor first half from West Ham United as Bristol City completely dominated the early proceedings, one-time watchers who know nothing about these two teams will have predicted the home side to be the Premier League team the way Moyes’ men were playing.
With the Hammers undergoing an injury crisis in attack, Moyes cannot afford some bad form from his defenders too and Mavropanos’ mistake reeked of a player performing with little confidence.
In other West Ham news, one player wants to leave the Hammers amid a £30million development.