Tottenham Hotspur failed to win on the road on Monday night, drawing 1-1 at Leicester City in a frustrating display for Ange Postecoglou.
This was a frustrating night for Tottenham Hotspur and an encapsulation of why many still have doubts about their top four aspirations.
Tottenham were superb in the first half and should have been more than 1-0 up against Leicester City as Pedro Porro found the net.
Spurs just couldn’t find the killer second goal and were made to pay with Jamie Vardy heading Leicester level.
Cristian Romero has been slammed for his defending for that goal and Tottenham just lost control of the game from that point.
Spurs couldn’t get back on track and had to settle for a 1-1 draw in a game which so easily could have been wrapped up at half time.
Jamie Carragher on Guglielmo Vicario
These are the games Tottenham need to be winning, especially having been on top with some scintillating attacking football.
This kind of result and second-half panic will leave pundits questioning Tottenham and their top-four credentials this season.
Tottenham do have quality players at Ange Postecoglou’s disposal but knitting it all together on a consistent basis is the challenge.
One area of concern heading into the season surrounds goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
The Italian stopper impressed last season but came unstuck on set pieces with teams targeting his lack of physicality.
Pundit Jamie Carragher has now shared his view on Vicario whilst speaking on Sky Sports (19/08, 19:50).
Carragher suggests that Vicario does have ‘really good’ aspects to his game, such as his shot-stopping and his ability to play behind a high line.
However, Carragher feels that Vicario simply ‘hasn’t got any presence’ when the ball is being fired in at him from crosses and set pieces.
Carragher feels that Vicario is simply ‘not aggressive enough’ in dealing with crosses and urged him to fix it as soon as possible.
“He’s got some really good qualities, we saw his shot-stopping last season, being high off his line for the Tottenham high line but he hasn’t got any presence in dealing with that,” said Carragher. “He’s not aggressive enough in coming to punch and people know that now and he’s got to fix it very quickly,” he added.
Vicario can bounce back
It’s only a few months ago that Carragher was hailing Vicario as ‘brilliant’ having been impressed with his displays at Tottenham.
Everton exploited Vicario back in February though and that really sparked a run of teams trying to target Vicario on set pieces.
There were no major problems on Monday night but until Vicario proves that he can handle the aerial bombardment, the concerns will remain.
This is somewhat similar to the criticism David De Gea received early into his time at Manchester United before the experience of Premier League action toughened him up a little.
Vicario can do the same but he isn’t a youngster like De Gea was; he is 28 in October and needs to make changes to his game quickly.
Vicario certainly has the talent to progress and add to his game but Tottenham need to see it soon – or those set-piece issues could linger.