Former Arsenal star Perry Groves believes Konstantinos Mavropanos committed a ‘cardinal sin’ with his error for West Ham against Fulham.
Inside the opening ten minutes in east London, Hammers defender Mavropanos tried to bring down and control an Alex Iwobi long-ball.
However, the centre-back skewed his first touch and it fell into the path of Andreas Pereira who then shortly fired in for Fulham.
Mavropanos did have an attacking player on his back but opted to put the ball across goal, which then led to his side conceding.
Speaking on The Sunday Session on talkSPORT, former Arsenal man Groves
was quick to criticise the defending from the Greek.
“I’m old school, should your centre-half be trying to bring the ball down in his own 18-yard box?
Pereira pounced on the mistake and took the ball round the goalkeeper
“The ball is coming from Iwobi from the right-hand side, 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.”
He then added: “It’s shocking defending from Mavropanos.”
The Fulham man then scored to put his side into the lead
West Ham could have taken the lead themselves in the opening moments but Michail Antonio fired over from inside the area.
The Hammers are looking to respond to their 2-0 Europa League quarter-final defeat to Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday night.
European qualification is still on the cards for David Moyes’ side but their current standing of eighth leaves them with work to do.
