Arsenal U23s suffered their first defeat of the season last night as they were beaten 3-1 by Chelsea, and it was the performance of the Gunners’ most experienced player which was one of the main causes for concern.
Konstantinos Mavropanos has been a regular in the U23 side in recent weeks having been unable to force his way back into the first-team picture following his return from injury.
The centre-back started well enough against Chelsea as he demonstrated that his impressive passing range is still very much intact.
However, Mavropanos was caught out on a couple of occasions, with his positioning being called into question, and his partnership with Harry Clarke, who also struggled, left much to be desired.
It is clear that Mavropanos is still talented but at present he doesn’t appear ready to make a major impact in the Arsenal first-team.
In any case it seems unlikely that he will be afforded such a chance in the near future, with a host of senior options ahead of him at the heart of the defence.
Mavropanos will be 22 in December and he has played more games for Arsenal’s U23 side than he has done for the first-team, albeit with injuries having not helped his cause.
January seems like the perfect time to send Mavropanos on loan, with the Greek youngster in need of regular football at a high level.
If Mavropanos did depart on a temporary basis then it would benefit some of Arsenal’s other youngsters too, with the likes of Joseph Olowu and Zech Medley having seen their game time restricted of late due to the presence of Mavropanos in the U23 squad.
—
Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Mavro
Mavropanos is an infinitely better player when he’s injured.
Yeah thats a theme with all our players it seems the longer they are away from limelight the higher we think of them. Mavro may be big but he is just a kid..hope our loan manager can step in and find a good fit elsewhere to steer his development. I suspect he goes back to Greece.
It’s certainly why Ozil is the missing piece of the puzzle once again.
A loan should definitely be on the cards but not in Greece. It will need to be closer to home conditions, drop to the Championship, in Germany or one of Celtic or Rangers. If there are no takers, maybe bite the bullet and drop 2-3 levels and play for Spuds to get game time.
Not to be harsh on Mavropanos but it was strange how people estimated him so highly. Only a few months ago people had him ahead of Chambers in the pecking order… bizarre.
Except Chambers hasn’t struggled with injuries the way Mavro has. How quick we are to write off players. All players are not carved in the image of Rosicky who hit the ground running after injury layoffs, some players take time to regain their form plus the boy is only 22. So can we not be quick to write him off?
Send the kid on loan he showed glimpses early on so we know he is talented but needs to learn , as numbers go we have plenty of CB’s here ahead of him anyway. There is no shame in not making the first team at 22.
A loan to a Bundesliga, mid table side needs to happen. He has the height, build and temperament to be an asset to us for years… But the improvement in quality needed has been hampered by injury!
I blame Mesut Özil.
I blame Ozil AND Emery.
If he gets a loan, it should probably be to the Championship. He needs to learn on a yough environment and the Championship will provide that. He has time to learn but if the problem is his positioning during a game, that means he is not ‘smelling’ where the danger is and I’m not sure you can teach that….
He’s had so many months out with injuries it’s going to take him a while to get back to his best. I think there’s a good defender in there and the right loan would probably do him the world of good. He’s tough enough, he just needs to get his rhythm back and that will come from playing matches.
I think he just needs time, and he will come good. Imagine a CB pairing of him and Saliba, both 6’4″, both excellent on the ball.
Potentially good. BUT reality is a very different thing. 1) Those who piss on Mustafi (yes he isn’t the best) need a bit of a wake up call. They prefer to imagine players like Mavro should start ahead of the German on zero basis. 2) Its the same with Saliba. He’s doing OK at St Etienne but when we bought him for a whopping 27m (even if in installments, a commitment), he was relatively untested over just 19 matches. And the fact of the matter is he would be unavailable to us this season. Instead we then tried to extend… Read more »
I’ve said it before, he needs to be out on a STRONG loan.
We could have been more creative this summer (unfortunately he was still recovering from injury. But a deal for one of Upamecano or Konate (had we not jump the gun prematurely on Saliba) plus a loan of Mavropanos and possibly Mhkitaryan then, would have been an option worth pushing for.
Another one who should be out on strong loan to regain confidence is Smith-Rowe.
hopefully we can engineer something for them this January.