Tottenham Hotspur were lucky again. On Wednesday night in the Champions League, the entire Tottenham team fell asleep as a wheel, letting in a barrage of shots while, once again, posing no real attacking threat for the seemingly umpteenth game of the season.
As more questions mount around Thomas Frank's start and his ability to manage a Champions League level club, another under fire individual at the N17 just greatly boosted his own stock in the 0-0 draw with Monaco.
Because without goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, this match clearly would not have been 0-0. Without world-class save after world-class save from the acrobatic Italian, Tottenham would have been blown out 3-0.
The stats back it up, too. Sofascore credited Vicario with 2.68 goals prevented in this draw against Monaco alone, as Vicario was the literal difference between Spurs scraping by with a point and completely losing all dignity with a 3-0 defeat that would have better reflected the slaughter that was on full display.
Exaggerated criticisms
Vicario has been criticized and lampooned by half the fanbase, and while many of those criticisms are legitimate, many more are either superfluous or grievously exaggerated. While, yes, young Antonin Kinsky could theoretically be better one day and is an exceptional young goalkeeper deserving of more chances, the notion that Vicario is in any way one of the five biggest problems with Spurs right now is absolutely ludicrous.
He may be streaky and he may have been poor against Aston Villa at the weekend on a couple of shots, but those minor mistakes are more than overshadowed by repeated goal-saving stops against Monaco. And this isn't even the first time this season Vicario has spared Spurs blushes, as they nearly pulled off a similar 0-0 draw early in the campaign against Bournemouth, which should have been Frank's first warning sign that things are not all hunky dory at N17.
Vicario has gone from someone who was under fire at Tottenham to a hero in just one game, and that turnaround isn't even as reactionary as many of the takes against him. While the fickle nature of football dictates that one bobbled ball in the next game will throw Vicario back on the hot seat, for the rest of the rational heads watching, at least this big game performance will generate some real appreciation for the job Vicario is able to do for Spurs when he is at his best.