By Louis Nixon

After a poor performance vs Aston Villa, should Konstantinos Mavropanos be dropped vs Manchester City?

Since his return from injury, Mavropanos has retained his starting spot over Kilman, which has led to the £40 million signing being benched, with Todibo still favoured by Nuno.

Mavropanos has had his fair share of criticism, but upon accumulating his injury this season, it was a major blow to the Hammers and instead of having a choice, Nuno was forced to use Kilman alongside Todibo.

It became pretty understandable that Kilman hadn’t only been making one too many mistakes, but he’d also been inflicting Todibo’s performance, hence why when Mavropanos became available again, he hasn’t left the squad since. 

Against Aston Villa, Mavropanos scored an unfortunate own goal and his performance overall simply wasn’t good enough, however, he did make some vital challenges throughout the game, which prevented the scoreline from being even higher.

Additionally, to call for him to be dropped after that performance would prove to be a costly mistake. Kilman, who would be the replacement, has constantly been making mistakes, and without a doubt, it feels inevitable that if he were included in the starting squad, it’s bound to go wrong. 

If fans are honest, against Aston Villa, no one in the defensive department had a successful game and all around it was a poor performance. Regardless of who did or didn’t start, it would’ve likely led to the same outcome if not worse so it does beg the question who should be the central defenders for the next game against Manchester City.

Personally, it has to be Mavropanos in my eyes, Kilman is lacklustre and Igor isn’t able to get near the starting squad at the moment. Across the last few games, bar a handful of unlucky moments, the defensive duo have been quite good and have certainly stepped up a notch in comparison to last season.

It’s just a shame that at this given moment, when it rains, it pours, but that’s unfortunately often the tale of the story when you’re near the relegation zone, which is exactly why no drastic actions or careless changes should be made.