Tottenham Hotspur have placed their faith in Antonín Kinský - legendary goalkeeper Brad Friedel explains why he’s up to the task, and how he can handle the pressure.
Sign up to our 3AddedMinutes newsletter
Sign up
Thank you for signing up!
Did you know with an ad-lite subscription to 3 Added Minutes, you get 70% fewer ads while viewing the news that matters to you.
Submitting...
It’s been a summer of significant change at Tottenham Hotspur. Following last season’s flirtation with the relegation zone, the club have spent heavily as they work to put together a team that suits Roberto De Zerbi’s playing style, and which can perhaps compete for European places once more – but one thing they aren’t looking to change is the goalkeeper.
Antonín Kinský started last season as a back-up, but has now been made first choice despite having just 16 Premier League appearances to his name. It’s a startling show of faith in a 23-year-old, just a few months after going through a humiliation few top-level goalkeepers have ever had to endure. So is he ready, both technically and psychologically, or should Spurs have moved to sign a more experienced player?
One of the few people truly well positioned to comment on Kinský’s situation is Brad Friedel. The legendary American goalkeeper, who spent the last four seasons of his career with Spurs, spoke exclusively to 3 Added Minutes about the club’s new number one – and how young goalkeepers can deal with the immense pressure that comes with the job.
Friedel: Antonín Kinský ‘more than ready’
If anyone can judge whether a goalkeeper is up to the task of being a starter in the Premier League, it’s Friedel. The 55-year-old, who now works as a pundit, made 450 appearances in the top flight for Spurs, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and Liverpool – and believes that Kinský is up to the task that lies ahead of him.
“Technically, yes he’s ready,” Friedel said. “He’s more than ready, actually, as a number one goalkeeper - and now confidence-wise and psychologically he’s ready as well, because he went through one of the most public situations that could really hurt someone’s career.”
Then manager Igor Tudor substituted Kinský just 17 minutes into a Champions League defeat to Atlético Madrid in March, having made him the starter ahead of Guglielmo Vicario just before the match.
Spurs had conceded three goals inside a quarter of an hour at the Metropolitano Stadium, with one coming after a slip from Kinský and another after he sliced an attempted pass straight into the path of Julian Álvarez.
Despite that, Kinský was back between the sticks a month later when Vicario went down with an injury – and Friedel believes that the way Kinský handled a potentially humiliating experience spoke to his readiness to take over as first choice.
“In that game, when you look at the goals, only one of the three was [his fault], the one where he took a bad touch,” Friedel added. “Another one he legitimately slipped on the turf, there’s not a lot you can do about that. The other one was a mistake by [Micky] Van de Ven. I think it was incredibly harsh for him to be taken off.
“When Vicario got injured and he had to go back in, I thought he was brilliant. Really, really top stuff. It is so difficult to come back in so quickly not only after what happened, but also in seven or eight of the highest-pressure games that Tottenham Hotspur have had in Premier League football history.
“You’re going to ask me about his confidence and psychological resolve? He’s got it. Even at a young age, he’s ready to take over for a long time.”
What Kinský must do to handle the pressure of being Spurs’ number one
As other parts of the Spurs squad are overhauled at considerable expense, Kinský has persuaded De Zerbi to persist with the Czech in goal – and his new status as a regular starter has been reflect by a new five-year contract.
Despite the faith shown in his abilities and the impressive manner in which he bounced back from his abrupt benching in the spring, he will still face immense pressure as the new season gets underway. It’s something that Friedel has experienced first hand.
“Goalkeepers are under an incredible amount of scrutiny right away,” Friedel said. “If you make one mistake it’s highlighted, and you either have to develop a way of life where you don’t read it, don’t see the negativity, or you read it and you don’t care about it.”
Friedel, who first moved to England in 1997 with Liverpool before establishing himself at Ewood Park, explained how he coped with that scrutiny and deal with mistakes – comparing handling the emotions that come with getting things wrong under a microscope with the loss of a close family member.
“If I played poorly and knew I’d made a mistake, I never watched the highlights, never watched the TV, never watched Sky or Match of the Day, never read the papers because you know that it’s all going to be negative stuff and you don’t need more negativity in your mind because you put enough pressure on yourself to try to perform.
“I would say the older I got, the easier it was to deal with. I think the most important thing is that you mustn’t let one mistake cost two, cost three or four. If you perform very well the next half, the next moment, the next save, the next game, then all was forgotten pretty quickly.
“But something that’s very difficult to know as a young player is how you’re going to be able to deal with that. You can talk about it all you want, but until you’re faced with it you never know how you’ll feel. It’s kind of like losing a mom or a dad. You can think you know how you’re going to feel but you never do unless you lose one.”
However Kinský handles the expectation as a young starting goalkeeper, Friedel is confident that he has the tools to cope – and Spurs fans will hope he’s proven right as the club transitions into a new era with a talented but inexperienced young man between the sticks.