After 11 years and 447 appearances, the Hugo Lloris era at Tottenham is drawing to a close with the club finalising the signing of Guglielmo Vicario from Empoli.
Vicario, 26, has agreed personal terms and is undergoing a medical at Spurs after the clubs agreed a £16.3m transfer to make him new manager Ange Postecoglou‘s first signing.
The deal signals the end of Lloris’ distinguished spell in north London with the French World Cup winner keen to take on a new challenge elsewhere.
At times in his Spurs career, Lloris resembled a one-man defensive unit but his deficiencies, especially in regard to his short distribution, have become more pronounced with more expected of goalkeepers on the ball.
Building from the back and playing through the lines are integral features of Postecoglou’s tactical philosophy and while Spurs have missed out on their top target, Brentford’s £40m-rated David Raya, they look to have brought in a keeper who is similar in style.
Like Raya, Vicario enjoys having the ball at his feet. According to Whoscored, Vicario ranked joint-third among Serie A goalkeepers for attempted passes per match (with 36.3) with over half of those defined as short passes, while he was 10th for percentage of open play passes “launched”, defined by FBREF as passes that travel further than 40 yards.
Spurs fans have grown accustomed to Lloris’ lofted lobs out to the flanks, but Vicario adopts a more high-risk and high-reward strategy, by attempting to bypass the press and play passes into midfield.
Occasionally, Vicario will get caught out but Postecoglou has shown that he is willing to accept mistakes from his goalkeepers; so long as they are kept to a minimum.
After Celtic’s 3-1 defeat to RB Leipzig in last season’s Champions League, Postecoglou criticised his outfield players for playing too safe rather than Joe Hart for an error, after the ex-Spurs keeper passed the ball straight to an opponent in the build-up to a match-turning goal.
“In the first half, we played balls that were on and sometimes we’d make a mistake and that was okay because we were trying to be positive. I just felt after we scored we almost settled for that and kept passing the ball back to him [Hart],” Postecoglou said. “If it wasn’t Joe making the mistake, it would have been somebody else.”
Important as a goalkeeper’s distribution is in the modern game, Vicario’s reflexes will also be tested judging by Spurs’ defensive record last season. They conceded a staggering 63 Premier League goals in 2022-23, the club’s worst total since the competition’s inaugural campaign in 1992-93 (66).
It is expected that Spurs will shift their transfer focus to centre-back once Vicario’s move has been completed with Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi, Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba and Wolfsburg’s Micky van de Ven, all reportedly on the shortlist.
Regardless of who lines up in front of him, Vicario will be required to keep the ball out of his net and it is an area that he excelled in during his two seasons at Empoli.
In 2021-22, Vicario made 150 saves – 28 more than any other keeper in Serie A – and another 95 in 2022-23, including three in a matter of seconds against Roma in a clip that went viral on social media. Although he made fewer saves last term, Vicario recorded a higher save percentage rate of 73.9 per cent (the fourth-best record in the league) compared to 69.9 the year before.
DA CHE PIANETA VIENI, Guglielmo #Vicario?!
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) February 5, 2023pic.twitter.com/O4fmhOYqGK
The response among Spurs supporters’ to Vicario’s imminent arrival appears to be split with two issues in particular concerning the sceptics: 1) He is not David Raya and 2) His lack of experience at the top level.
Having baulked at Brentford’s steep valuation of Raya, who will be a free agent next summer, Daniel Levy has been accused of taking the cheaper option by sanctioning a deal for Vicario at less than half the price. Raya has been one of the most consistent keepers in the Premier League over the past two years and has been linked to Manchester United, another club contemplating life after a long-serving No 1.
Vicario, like his new manager, has taken a circuitous route to the top. The first six years of his career were spent in Italy’s lower leagues before Cagliari bought him to be Alessio Cragno’s backup in 2020. He has only played top-flight football for two years, and is yet to play in a European club competition or represent Italy at international level.
Concerns over his readiness are understandable, but Vicario joins Spurs with a burgeoning reputation and the ringing endorsements of legendary Italian goalkeepers Gianluigi Buffon and Gianluca Pagliuca amongst others.
And importantly, given Spurs’ scattergun approach to recruitment in recent years, he at least matches the criteria demanded by the manager. As a result, Vicario will have a big role to play as Postecoglou prepares to usher in a progressive style of play at a club looking to rebuild its identity.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Wj8O2Y1
Post a Comment