Michael Owen has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper, Hugo Lloris, was ‘playing for the cameras’ during his ‘exceptional’ display against Manchester United on Wednesday night, as he told Premier League Productions (19/10/22 at 10:25 pm).
Antonio Conte’s side suffered a 2-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford, but if it wasn’t for Lloris in between Tottenham’s sticks, then it could and should have been a lot worse.
There were a total of 28 shots at Tottenham’s goal and Lloris saved eight of those – Fred and Bruno Fernandes were the two that were able to bypass the Frenchman’s cat-like reflexes.
In regards to it being such a one-sided game, this wasn’t a case of a goal changing the game, or subs going wrong, or perhaps a sending-off resulting in Spurs having to defend for their lives.
From the get-go, their defensive final third was bombarded, and in truth, they had no answers. Yet, it wasn’t a thunderous effort, but a helpful deflection off Ben Davies from Fred’s edge-of-the-area shot that opened the scoring in the first half.
Despite the onslaught, Conte opted against making changes, waiting until after the 80th minute, despite the same pattern continuing at the start of the second half and Fernandes curling in a quite brilliant effort on 69 minutes.
Nonetheless, whilst Owen acknowledged that Lloris was one of Tottenham’s better players, or perhaps the only performer last night, he felt that he was overdoing it on occasions.
“He made a couple of saves where I thought ‘ooh, that one was for the cameras’,” said Owen. “But he also made some saves that were out of this world. This a cracking save, Marcus Rashford hits it hard – then again, one for the cameras.
“Before the game, they had it (momentum). As Antonio Conte mentioned, against the big teams, they have fallen a little short – their goalkeeper has been exceptional.”
NEGATIVE SPURS?
That’s what is being thrown at Spurs, and especially their manager Antonio Conte, and in truth, when looking at their performances against Arsenal and Manchester United this season, then they have no answer.
Even their 2-2 draw at Chelsea, when Harry Kane scored a stoppage-time equaliser, the result of that match could have been a lot different had some of the Chelsea players had their shooting boots on.
But, it needs to be remembered that Conte secured Champions League football, he has the team sitting third in the table and they are a few positive results away from reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League.
And this is all by playing in the same manner, it’s just a case of taking the rough with the smooth.
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