Guglielmo Vicario’s inconsistent season continued on Saturday as he played an unfortunate role in Tottenham’s defeat to Fulham.
Spurs lost 2-1 to Marco Silva’s side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, meaning the North London club could drop as low as 13th this weekend if other results don’t go their way.
Thomas Frank is under major pressure already, but little can be done about ridiculous errors like the one that Vicario committed when he basically gifted Fulham’s match-winning goal to them on a plate in the sixth minute.
Kenny Tete put Silva’s men ahead in the fourth minute, before Harry Wilson scored from an incredible angle after Vicario lost possession while he was out near the touchline.
Tottenham fans boo Guglielmo Vicario after awful error
Vicario picked up a loose ball on the edge of his penalty area under a bit of pressure. But instead of booting it clear, he ended up running it out to the touchline before trying to pass it down the line to a teammate.
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Instead, Fulham’s Josh King picked up the poor clearance, passed it to Wilson, who then curled in what was, in fairness, an absolute beauty.
Spurs fans then booed Vicario, and even though he’s a part of the goalkeepers’ union, ex-England star Joe Hart can understand why the home crowd was so angry with the Italian.
“I do understand the fans’ frustration. It’s obviously difficult,” said Hart on Match of the Day on Saturday night.
“I know the role that Vicario is playing. He’s a great team player, and he’s a real leader in the dressing room, but ultimately, you’re going to be judged by your actions and he was heavily involved in what turned out to be the match-winning goal.
“They’re already 1-0 down so the edge is already in the stadium.
“Now, people will be asking for him to clear it here but this now where you realise, ‘I’m in big trouble, I’ll just knock it out, get my defenders back and I’ll get back in goal’.
“But he still wants to keep the ball in play and that’s the modern way, the modern-day goalkeeper.
“He screws one up the line and this is brilliant from Fulham. King and Wilson immediately realise Tottenham are in massive trouble and King knows what a technician Wilson is, so he lays it on a plate.”
Inconsistent stats plague Vicario’s season
You have to feel a bit for Frank because how on earth is he meant to decide whether or not to stick by Vicario as his number one goalkeeper when his Tottenham performances are so up and down?
According to Sofascore, Vicario registered a goals prevented stat of -0.92, meaning the conceded almost one more goal than he should have against Fulham.
To put that in context, his Premier League tally before the game this season was 3.55, meaning he slashed that stat by around a third with that one terrible display against the Cottagers.
As you can see in the table above, it means that Vicario has lost major ground on rivals Premier League goalkeepers for how vital they’ve been in between the sticks this season.
The ‘goals prevented’ stat is a very important one for shot-stoppers because it takes into account how good their saves have been, and also how bad their goals have been that they’ve conceded.
Usually, if you just look at the number of saves made, it’ll always show goalkeepers at lesser Premier League teams leading the way.
Most Premier League saves this season:
And the numbers from Sofascore paint a clear picture – Vicario has had a good season.
However, he clearly lets himself down with mistakes like that one against Fulham.
Vicario scored a perfect 10/10 for his display against Monaco in the Champions League in October.
We need to see more of that goalkeeper and less of the one making silly errors.