Ange Postecoglou has revealed that he already had his eye on Guglielmo Vicario’s development even before he accepted the Tottenham job.
We have seen time and again that even experienced goalkeepers have not found it easy to settle into Premier League football, which is what makes Vicario’s start to his Tottenham career so impressive.
The 27-year-old has looked extremely assured and composed so far, hardly putting a foot wrong and having come up with some big saves at crucial points in games.
Given how Hugo Lloris had declined as a goalkeeper over the last couple of years, the Italian has certainly proven to be a major upgrade between the sticks over the former Tottenham captain.
Postecoglou admitted that it was a huge plus for Spurs to bring Vicario through the door early in the summer and spoke in glowing terms of the way that the newcomer has grown into the role.
The Tottenham head coach told Football.London about Vicario: “He’s really embraced the challenge. He knew it’s a big task coming in to be the goalkeeper for one of the biggest clubs, and you’re replacing a fairly prominent figure in the world of football.
“It’s a position with a massive spotlight on it. Other players if they make a mistake they have a chance to atone for it. Goalkeepers, if you make a mistake there’s pretty much no coming back from it. He’s just really embraced the challenge.
“The key thing is we got him in early. If he had come in on the eve of the season there would have been so much more pressure on him but he was allowed to bed in in pre-season games.
“He’s really grown into it. In goalkeeping terms, he’s very young still and this is his first big club really. There is plenty of upside here and we’re really pleased we got him in.”
The Australian insisted that he was delighted to see the former Empoli man’s name on Tottenham’s shortlist, having followed his progress closely.
When asked if he was aware of Vicario’s exploits in the Serie A, the 58-year-old responded: “He was already on the list yeah. I was aware of him before. I’d done a bit of work on goalkeepers. When you go into a role you know what’s needed. I’ve got my own databank of information.
“Yeah absolutely [I was pleased he was on the club’s list]. It wasn’t an extensive list, but all of the keepers on the list were of good quality. But there was something I saw, particularly after speaking to him, that made me think he was the perfect fit for us.
“There’s always an element of risk and you are prepared, but when I feel so strongly about something I’m prepared to take responsibility if it doesn’t work out. I was quietly confident it would.”
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Ange evidently puts a lot of weight on a player’s personality rather than just looking at their skill set. I suspect one of the reasons he was convinced to pursue Vicario was the Italian’s mentality of wanting to challenge himself and improve as a goalkeeper.
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