Danny Wright

Sun 1 October 2023 11:42, UK

Tottenham rode their luck as they beat nine-man Liverpool 2-1 in North London on Saturday as Ange Postecoglou’s men rose to second in the Premier League table.

Curtis Jones’ red card and the questionable decision to disallow what would have been the first goal of the game by Luis Diaz left the Reds raging as they returned to Merseyside.

However, from Tottenham’s point of view, the gritty victory shows that there’s something special potentially budding at The Lane this season.

Postecoglou’s work in the summer transfer window is paying dividends so far. Harry Kane may have gone but James Maddison and Micky van de Ven are looking to be inspired signings while the addition of goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has also added a real sense of calm and composure at the back.

Hugo Lloris had long outstayed his welcome in the number-one role at Tottenham. The experienced Frenchman’s form had been on the decline for years so it was refreshing to see Postecoglou come in and snap up 26-year-old Vicario from Empoli as his first signing.

Vicario was a bit of a left-field signing, admittedly.

He’d played more times in Serie B than in Serie A and has never played a game for the Italy national team. He’s also not played for any of the bigger teams in Italy, playing most of his matches for Venezia and Empoli, who received an initial £17.2million for the shot-stopper from Spurs in June.

Vicario will celebrate his 27th birthday next Saturday (7 October) when Tottenham head to Kenilworth Road to play Luton and by that age, most fans would expect players to be fully developed and at the peak of their careers.

But that may not be the case just yet for Vicario, who has been impressive for Spurs but still doesn’t seem as though he’s the finished article.

The Italian made his seventh Premier League appearance on Saturday (30 September) as Tottenham won against Liverpool. In his seven games so far, he’s conceded eight times, kept two clean sheets and, according to stats by WhoScored, made 26 saves.

It’s quite a high number considering Spurs’ position in the table and also their defensive record. Vicario ranks seventh in the league for saves made so far, alongside Burnley’s James Trafford.

More impressively, data by FBRef shows that Vicario has the highest save percentage in the Premier League at this point with the new Spurs number one saving 81.8 per cent of shots at him.

While the above chart shows that Vicario (33) hasn’t faced anywhere near as many shots as Sheffield United’s Wes Foderingham (60), for example, it shows that there’s a high likelihood that any shot on target against Tottenham is going to be saved by the Italian.

Unfortunately, in the win over Liverpool, Vicario could have done better.

He made two big saves early on to deny Cody Gakpo and Andrew Robertson at his near post. According to Wyscout, those two shots combined were worth an xCG (expected conceded goal) of 0.8, meaning that there was a high chance that Vicario would have been beaten by one of them.

Both shots called on Vicario’s reflexes but the soon-to-be-birthday-boy should have probably done a bit more to turn Gakpo’s shot wide before Robertson had a chance to follow up.

Before Roberton’s pass comes in for Gakpo, Vicario is well-positioned at his near post.

Gakpo has to take a touch to control it and is then under pressure from van de Ven before he gets a shot off from around seven yards out from the goal.

It’s a powerful shot, right towards Vicario’s face. However, the goalkeeper does well to get his arms up and deflect the ball away from the goal behind him.

Unfortunately, what he doesn’t do is parry the ball out of danger.

In the above image, you can see where the ball lands after Vicario’s initial parry. Stronger arms that were turned towards the by-line would have likely seen the ball go out for a corner kick and nullify the threat of a follow-up.

Vicario then finds himself on the ground as Robertson strikes the ball at goal, albeit from a tighter angle.

But this save is much better. He rises from the turf and manages to push the ball out of play to finally end the dangerous Liverpool attack.

Ultimately, Liverpool didn’t score so it’s undeniable that they were two good saves by Vicario. But had it not been a left-back following up on Gakpo’s initial shot and maybe a player like Mohamed Salah, Spurs could have found themselves a goal down while Jurgen Klopp still had 11 men on the pitch.

Vicario couldn’t keep a clean sheet in this game, which isn’t a surprise given the form Liverpool had been in prior to their trip to the capital.

However, the former Empoli goalkeeper’s positioning was unfortunately to blame when Gakpo got himself on the scoresheet in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time.

After a ball was played into the Tottenham box and knocked down by Virgil van Dijk, Vicario found himself in the middle of the goal with the ability to cover all areas if Gakpo managed to turn and get a shot off.

Strangely, Vicario moved to his left.

He clearly did this because of two Tottenham defenders rushing back onto the line but the goalkeeper is always going to be more effective at stopping the ball going in the back of the net.

It was a rash decision to effectively open up the middle of the goal for Gakpo to shoot into.

Van de Ven didn’t cover himself in glory by allowing Gakpo the time and space to turn and get a powerful shot in but had Vicario held his ground in the middle of the goal, he would have no doubt dealt with that again.

Overall, it was a strong performance by the Spurs number one.

However, there are clearly many things to work on and goalkeeping coach Rob Burch will surely want to speak with Vicario about his positioning and his ability to nullify danger by parrying short-distance shots out of play rather than back into the danger zone.

In other Tottenham news, John Wenham wants Jamie Donley promoted to the first team.