Dinos Mavropanos and his fellow West Ham United defenders face the toughest test in English football on Sunday – stopping Liverpool.
The Reds have scored a Premier League best 40 goals, netting in every one of their first 17 matches under new manager Arne Slot and, in Mohamed Salah, they possess the Premier League’s leading scorer AND assist maker, with 16 and eleven respectively to his name.
Liverpool have scored at least two goals in each of their previous ten top-flight matches, and have lost just once all season – at home to Nottingham Forest in mid-September – to storm to the top of both the Premier League and the newly-formatted UEFA Champions League tables and through to the EFL Cup semi-finals.
You could forgive Greece international Mavropanos for feeling intimidated by the prospect of facing Slot’s side, but he is not that type of character. Instead, the No15 is relishing the challenge, and pointed to previous wins over the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea during his time at the Club as reasons to think the Irons can upset the odds again this weekend.
“Obviously we know that Liverpool are having a great season,” he told Premier League Productions. “They are a really strong team, really consistent, but I think when we are in our level, in our higher level, with our fans at home, I think we showed before that we can do everything and win games that nobody maybe expects.
“So, I think, if we are ready for this game, and give everything we have, we can get something from that game.”
As for contending with the threat of Salah, Mavropanos knows it will be difficult to keep the Egyptian quiet, but backed his team to continue the defensive improvements that have seen them concede just three goals in their previous four games, culminating in a clean sheet and victory at Southampton on Boxing Day.
“Obviously he's a great player, it's really tricky to play against him but as I said, I think when we are ready for this game, and we follow our plan, I think we can stop him and other players from scoring goals,” he continued.
“It will be a really important match because we are now four games unbeaten, and if we can carry on like this against a team like Liverpool, it will give us more belief and we can push ourselves to perform better and become better, to get higher in the table.”
