By Dan Carter

13th Sep, 2023 | 8:10pm

West Ham defender Konstantinos Mavropanos makes Euro 2024 team of the week for stats website

Konstantinos Mavropanos was in inspired form for Greece in their Euro 2024 qualifying win over Gibraltar, with the West Ham defender earning a place in the Sofascore team of the week as a result.

The stats website revealed their highest-rated European side on Twitter (13 September) for round six of qualifying and the Hammers defender partnered with Portuguese defender Goncalo Inacio in defence, having earned a rating of 9.0 in Sunday’s (10 September) win.

Centre-back Mavropanos scored twice, both via headers, as Greece romped to a 5-0 win and he was relatively untroubled defensively not making a single tackle in the 90 minutes that he played in Athens. However, he did win four aerial and three ground duels.

The former Stuttgart man showed his quality in possession, however, registering a huge 101 touches and he made 89 accurate passes, the most of any player on the pitch. Nearly every time he aimed to find a teammate he was accurate, registering an impressive 94 per cent pass completion rate [Sofascore].

While the two goals were the first international efforts for the towering defender, he may feel aggrieved that he didn’t manage to make it a hat trick, having two further attempts on goal only for one to drift wide of the post and the other to be blocked.

Ready for action

So far Hammers fans haven’t seen their new defender in action as he recovered from an injury, but it is safe to say he’s fit and ready to play his part should David Moyes call upon his services for the Hammers match against Manchester City on Saturday (16 September).

Facing up against Erling Haaland and the rest of Pep Guardiola’s side would be some baptism of fire for the 25-year-old, but he will be returning from international duty full of confidence following his exploits for Greece in the last week.

He is in some esteemed company in the team of the week, but Moyes’ side have been defensively solid in the early stages of the campaign so it is hard to see how Mavropanos manages to dislodge either Nayef Aguerd or Kurt Zouma. After all, his incredible display for Greece required no defending such was the poor display from the away side.

His eye for goal and presence from set pieces could entice Moyes into giving him a run out in some capacity at the London Stadium. Their chances may be limited against Man City so having someone clinical in the air could be a huge bonus.

In other West Ham news, Alphonse Areola has had the worst pass-completion record of all Premier League keepers this season