Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has been hailed by Gary Neville after his performance against Chelsea on Monday night.
Guglielmo Vicario has earned huge praise from Gary Neville after some ‘brilliant’ goalkeeping for Tottenham Hotspur against Chelsea.
Vicario was a very busy man as Tottenham fell to a 4-1 defeat against London rivals Chelsea on Monday night.
Tottenham decided to play with a high line even with nine men on the pitch following red cards for Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie.
That meant Vicario had to operate as a sweeper-keeper, being quick off his line whilst attempting to keep the Blues at bay.
Gary Neville hails Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario
Vicario pulled off one fine save in the first half, denying Nicolas Jackson with an outstanding stop.
That moment earned huge praise as pundit Gary Neville, speaking on Sky Sports (06/11, 8:12pm) raved about the Italian stopper.
Neville noted that he wasn’t sure about Vicario when he first watched the Tottenham goalkeeper in action.
Neville is now being convinced by Vicario though, suggesting that he has been ‘absolutely outstanding’ this season and showed his quality with a ‘brilliant save’ from Jackson’s shot.
“The first time I watched him live, Vicario, I was thinking ‘hmm, I need to watch him again’. The times I’ve watched him since, he’s been absolutely outstanding. The anticipation of Vicario, because he has to go early, and he’s there – that’s a brilliant, brilliant save,” said Neville.
Vicario then went into full sweeper-keeper mode in the second half and managed to react very quickly to deny Marc Cucurella, who had broken the offside trap.
Neville (06/11, 9:35pm) hailed Vicario for being ‘lightning-quick’ and showed brilliant goalkeeping to keep Chelsea at bay.
“Brilliant, absolutely brilliant from the goalkeeper, really impressive. He’s out, lightning-quick, that is brilliant goalkeeping,” he added.
Neville view on Vicario echoed elsewhere
It’s reasonable to suggest that many weren’t entirely convinced by Vicario in his first few weeks as a Tottenham player.
Signed from Empoli over the summer, Vicario wasn’t well-known outside of Italy and he looked like an underwhelming replacement for Hugo Lloris on name value alone.
Vicario didn’t really look too confident or imposing early on but is now really showing his class.
A top shot-stopper whose sweeper-keeper abilities really came to the fore against Chelsea, Vicario is proving that he is a great fit for Ange Postecoglou’s style.
Neville has admitted that he got it wrong with his first verdict on Vicario, and many more – Tottenham fans or otherwise – would probably follow suit right now.
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