by Guglielmo Vicario was outstanding in Tottenham’s 4-0 win at Manchester City on Saturday, making a series of fine saves to give Ange Postecoglou’s side a rare clean sheet and help condemn the champions to their biggest defeat of their history at the Etihad.
Remarkably, Vicario played an hour of the match with a broken ankle, which required surgery on Monday and is expected to sideline the goalkeeper for months.
The 28-year-old Italian required treatment after landing awkwardly during a challenge with Savinho, but he felt able to continue playing, and it was only after the match that his ankle swelled painfully. Spurs and Vicario were surprised when a scan on Sunday revealed a broken bone.
The news is nothing short of a disaster for Spurs, dampening their historic win over City which has changed the perception of what could be possible for Postecoglou’s side this season.
Postecoglou will now have to rely on veteran Fraser Forster, at least until January, when the club could recruit a new goalkeeper.
Vicario is not only a brilliant goalkeeper, he is the starting point of Spurs’ entire game plan under Postecoglou, which relies on high-risk short passes from the goalkeeper to bait the opposition press, and on a goalie capable of sweeping. behind the advanced defensive line.
Postecoglou demands his goalkeeper play short in almost every scenario and Vicario’s speed of thinking, quality on the ball and pace of his line are crucial to Spurs’ approach.
“It’s part of the way we want to play our football,” Postecoglou said in October, when asked why his team almost never played long. “The shorter pass means you’re going to start with possession. We don’t want to give away possession.
“The kind of team we are, we want to set things up to have control of the game and the shorter pass ensures that from there you move forward.
“A lot of our build-up play is about manipulating oppositions as much as possible as we move up the park rather than going long into a contested ball and hoping to get the second ball. We’re just not that kind of team.”
Forster is only 36 but he belongs to a different generation of English goalkeepers, for whom playing from the back was less valued than stopping shots and being an imposing presence in the box.
It is unlikely that Tottenham’s build-up play can be as effective as it was against City with the former England international between the sticks, and two of Forster’s three appearances this season – the win over Coventry in the Cup Carabao and the defeat against Galatasaray – were turbulent affairs.
However, he kept a clean sheet against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League, making three smart saves and being quick on his line.
The hope for Spurs is that under Postecoglou’s guidance, Forster can replicate Vicario’s playing success and even, perhaps, prove a more dominant presence in his six-yard box, particularly on set pieces .
Joe Hart, whose glittering career was almost defined by City head coach Pep Guardiola deciding he wasn’t good enough with his feet, revealed Postecoglou completely changed his perception of the game from the back after the former England No.1 joined him at Celtic. in 2021.
“Ange Postecoglou blew me away,” Hart told BBC Radio 5-Live in an interview this month.
“I always thought: ‘playing from the back, oh my god, does that mean I have to do Cruyff turns, pick passes?’
“No, it’s not. That means I have to stand on the ball, I have to make sure my center halves are on either side of me, that my six is visible, and then if the space is created, I I don’t play for the sake of playing, I play to score.
“If this full pressure comes and all I see is the opposition players standing next to mine, I make it clear in my mind that there is a small ball dunked into the attacker’s chest .”
Forster is a likeable and stable character, well respected by everyone at Spurs, and if he can improve his game and successfully adapt his approach like Hart, Postecoglou’s team will hope to continue improving until so that she can recruit a new goalkeeper or that Vicario returns.
Postecoglou was quite prescient in signing Forster up for the Europa League, opting instead to omit full-back Djed Spence from his squad, meaning he will join the squad straight for Thursday’s visit of Roma before making his first Premier League appearance since May 2023 against Fulham. on Sunday.
But Spurs always considered it a risk not to bring in real competition for Vicario this summer and, with his long-term injury, their gamble has now backfired.
