The reason why Lopetegui isn’t starting Jean-Clair Todibo

Throughout the summer transfer window, West Ham were involved in negotiations with Nice to sign Todibo and despite their opening bid, didn't look highly likely to secure the Frenchman's signature. Serie A side Juventus were interested in Todibo, however, after several weeks the Hammers surprised a lot of Premier League fans and analysts by bringing the 24-year-old centre-back to the London Stadium. This was considered a massive signing for the Hammers who were expected to have a reliable centre-back partnership of Max Kilman and Todibo to provide defensive solidity to their squad. 

However, that hasn't been the case and Todibo is yet to start for Julen Lopetegui's side in the Premier League after five league matches. In the first three league games before the international break, Todibo was regularly featuring as a second half substitute around the hour mark, but hasn't played in the last two matches against Fulham and Chelsea. In the Chelsea match, manager Julen Lopetegui started Edson Alvarez as the third central defender alongside Kilman and Mavropanos, which has sparked speculations as to why Lopetegui isn’t starting Todibo despite the Hammers conceding a lot of goals in the recent matches. 

The reason why Lopetegui isn’t starting Jean-Clair Todibo

According to a recent report from GIVEMESPORT, it is suggested that the former UEFA Europa League winning manager isn't convinced with Todibo and thus, prefers Mavropanos and Alvarez to partner Kilman at centre-back. However, Mavropanos made a defensive mistake against Fulham on the opening goal, and both him and Alvarez struggled to keep up with the blistering pace of Chelsea star Nicolas Jackson, who scored two goals inside the first half to give Chelsea a 3-0 win. Hence, now manager Julen Lopetegui needs to make the decision to give Todibo more minutes as he is a better defender than Mavropanos and Alvarez and he possesses great recovery pace and is an elite ball playing defender. 

Now it remains to be seen when Jean-Clair Todibo will start for West Ham as the Hammers need to improve their Premier League performances after taking only four points from the first five matches.