Although Tottenham Hotspur supporters are less toxic than the more mainstream and international Big Six clubs like Manchester United's, Arsenal's, or Chelsea's, they are a big enough club that you are always going to find toxic narratives and opinions pervading certain subsections of the fanbase.
From hating on Thomas Frank to the horrible criticisms of young wingers Mathys Tel and Wilson Odobert, there have been some embarrassing takes from Spurs fans this season. But there is one less obtuse take that seems to have gained more traction among Tottenham fans, and that is the notion that Guglielmo Vicario isn't good enough for Spurs or that he needs to be benched.
A lot of that is down to two things. Firstly, some Spurs fans were hyping up Vicario a little too hard, placing him on a pedestal with the elite goalkeepers in world football like Alisson Becker and Thibaut Courtois. News flash: he isn't that good, and the only people placing him in that stratsophere were the typical delusional fans who will hype up anyone for likes. Secondly, what's hurting Vicario's perception is a series of a high-profile mistakes and weaknesses that beget bad errors.
The second of those points is a far one to bring up. Vicario, overall, is a very good goalkeeper, but he isn't world-class, and Tottenham do actually have a wonderful goalkeeper behind him in Antonin Kinsky who is so good that he has the potential to be even better than Vicario. But importantly, wanting Kinsky to start over Vicario should be more about praising Kinsky and less about praising Vicario.
Elite numbers among Premier League players
While it is somewhat fair to say that Vicario's handling errors and overall proneness to mistakes makes some Spurs fans feel less safe with him in goal, the same energy - if not more - must be spent praising Vicario for bailing Tottenham out several times with insane saves that very few goalkeepers in the world could make. Those are the Gianluigi Donnarumma or Courtois-tier saves.
When you break down the numbers, the insanity of some of the criticisms of Vicario becomes apparent. He has literally been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League this season. Vicario ranks third in post-shot expected goals prevented at 2.2, and his per-90 ratio is fifth in the Premier League.
Further, Vicario is second in the Premier League in save percentage at 82.8, just 0.5 percentage points behind rival David Raya's rate. He is tied for third in goals allowed per game and tied for fifth in clean sheet percentage.
Vicario, by all these accounts, is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League right now, and he is saving Tottenham a lot more than he is hurting him. The mistakes are likely exaggerated by the fact that there are so few of them, and they are far outweighed by the goals he prevents. Statistically, he saves more than four of the five shots on target he faces, so then, how can he be inconsistent?
Tottenham fans are right to criticize Vicario for some of his errors, and he will need a bigger sample size than seven games to be considerd world-class. And even then, it's hard to call a goalkeeper world-class if they make untimely errors. But everone has a rough patch, and Vicario is over his from a few games at the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season when Spurs were terrible. On that subject, he was perfect when it mattered most in the Europa League knockouts.
Vicario is being scapegoated unfairly, when, by every single objective goalkeeper metric, he is one of the best in the Premier League right now. He was at that level in Serie A for Empoli and has consistently been a good goalkeeper for Spurs. He is the least of the club's problems in 2025.