Tottenham‘s messy goalkeeper handover last summer had the potential to create an awkward situation for Ange Postecoglou as he set to work rebuilding the club from the wreckage of the previous season.
Guglielmo Vicario was the club’s first signing after Postecoglou’s appointment and his arrival signalled the end of Hugo Lloris’ spell at Spurs that spanned 11 years and 447 matches – albeit not immediately.
Lloris was granted permission to find a new club but ended up staying after the transfer window had closed and had a watching brief as Angeball took the Premier League by storm.
The Frenchman eventually left at the end of December, signing for Los Angeles FC eight months after his last appearance for Spurs – an ignominious 6-1 defeat to Newcastle – but made sure to pass on his wisdom and advice to his successor on his way out, helping to smooth the transition from one era to the next.
i was part of a select group of media who sat down with Vicario after he was named Goalkeeper of the Year at the London Football Awards.
“I have huge respect for what Hugo did [at Spurs] and also what he did with me when we trained in the last few months because he is a massive keeper and a massive human being [from] the way he behaved with me,” he said.
“I have a big respect for what he achieved in his career, he’s a World Cup winner and a [former Tottenham] captain. He was very kind with me and tried to help me to settle in as fast as I could so I am very grateful to him.”
Vicario has made such an accomplished start at Spurs that is easy to forget that a daunting challenge awaited him in north London.
Not only was the 27-year-old tasked with replacing a long-serving club legend, he also had to adapt to a completely different style of play from what he had been accustomed to in Italy.
During his final season at Empoli, Vicario ranked 16th among Serie A goalkeepers for defensive actions made outside the penalty area. This season, he is joint-top for that metric in the Premier League alongside Aston Villa’s World Cup winner Emiliano Martinez.
Vicario has effectively transitioned from playing behind a low block to becoming a proactive sweeper keeper. Few players have encapsulated Tottenham’s adaptation to Angeball more than he has.
“It’s a completely different style of football to what I had to do in my past but I think it’s just about hard work and trying to work as a team,” he says.
“I think we have to take some risks playing from the back because it is one of the situations that we work on every day. I think we can have a lot of solutions in these steps. Of course, we play with a high line so you have to be ready to sweep outside the box.
“I think this could be the new era, the new way of football so I really enjoy it.”
Vicario mastered English even before moving to the capital and speaks with impressive confidence and authority in a second language.
It’s clear that he’s an avid student of the game too, scrutinising rival goalkeepers to see how they deal with some of the more unique challenges posed by Premier League football.
“I like to watch every goalkeeper in the way they behave, the way they save, their style of goalkeeping so I watch a lot. Dibu [Emiliano] Martinez and Alisson for me are the two top keepers in the league so if I have to say someone I would say these two guys because they are unbelievable.
“They play with risks, they take risks playing from the back and they are very brave to go out in other situations.”
That is not to say that the Italian hasn’t excelled at the more traditional aspects of his role either. According to Fbref, Vicario has saved Spurs almost six goals in the Premier League by keeping out more high-xG chances than any other keeper in the division. He has also saved 71 per cent of the shots he has faced.
Adjusting to the physicality of English football is an ongoing process, though. Opponents have tried to unsettle Vicario from set-pieces in recent months by crowding around him at corners and free-kicks. Following last month’s draw at Everton, Postecoglou claimed that referees are reluctant to call fouls in the penalty area after Jack Harrison backed into Vicario in the build-up to his equaliser.
“I think it’s a different way to what I had to face in the past,” Vicario says when asked whether keepers receive enough protection from referees in England.
“It’s just maybe you have to settle in and try to do as much as you can to deal with that. I think referees are doing well so I can’t complain.”
It has been a season of regeneration at Spurs with influential players like Harry Kane, Lloris and Eric Dier all moving on and younger players either brought in from elsewhere or promoted from within to replace them on the pitch and in the dressing room.
New leaders have naturally begun to emerge including Vicario, Cristian Romero and James Maddison, but it is evident that a young squad is benefiting from Son Heung-min’s expertise and experience.
The South Korean is Spurs’ second longest-serving player after Ben Davies and has clearly made a positive impression on his teammates since being made club captain last summer.
“I think Sonny is literally unbelievable,” says Vicario.
“Of course in terms of training, but I think the most important thing you can see from a captain is the way in which he behaves and he’s perfect every day in trying to push our squad to try to achieve the best and try to do the best day by day and try to improve.
“I think Sonny is doing unbelievable as a footballer but also as a captain and a leader. He’s very important for us.”
Challenging for the Champions League places looked like a long shot for Spurs in pre-season given the turmoil of the previous campaign and the subsequent overhaul of personnel that followed. Selling Kane to Bayern Munich less than 48 hours before the curtain raiser at Brentford raised further doubts about their capacity to compete.
But they are right in the thick of the top-four race heading into the latter stages of the campaign with a pivotal fixture against Aston Villa coming up this weekend. A win at Villa Park would put Spurs two points behind Unai Emery’s fourth-placed side with a game in hand.
While Vicario insists that Spurs are focusing “game by game” and not allowing themselves to be distracted by the prospect of securing Champions League football, he is confident that the future is bright.
“We are a very young group and it’s the first season that we are playing all together with a new manager, so we just have to remain calm and try to focus and work hard every day because I think we can build something special in the next seasons. I hope we will stay all together.”
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