Postecoglou told ‘only chink in Tottenham armour’, as ex-England man explains how ‘brilliant’ star can improve

Guglielmo Vicario and Tottenham Hotspur have been told the ‘chink in their armour’ is the goalkeeper’s weakness at dealing with set-pieces, after Ange Postecoglou’s side conceded an injury-time goal at Everton.

Tottenham took the lead in just the fourth minute when former Everton attacker Richarlison swept a great first-time strike into the roof of the net after good work by Destiny Udogie down the left flank.

But the Toffees dragged themselves level in the 30th minute when Vicario failed to deal with a corner under pressure from Jack Harrison, which allowed a combination of Harrison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin to bundle over the line after James Tarkowski had headed back across goal.

11 minutes later Richarlison again tormented his former club by sending a curling right-footed effort into the top corner following a clever flick by James Maddison.

Tottenham thought they had picked up all three points at Goodison Park, only for Jarrad Branthwaite to net an equaliser in the fourth minute of injury time. Cristian Romero won the first header from an Everton free-kick, but Branthwaite beat Vicario to the ball at the back post and managed to head over the line, causing wild scenes among the home supporters as the entertaining clash ended 2-2.

When analysing Vicario’s ability to deal with crosses, TNT Sports pundit Peter Crouch said: “I think it’s a chink in his armour. He has been amazing since he’s been at the club, fantastic goalkeeper. But that seems to be an issue.

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“He dropped it against Manchester City, at Brentford at times he had a slight issue with that, and again today he just couldn’t handle it when Harrison backed into him.

“For whatever reason, it wasn’t done in the second half, I think Everton let them off.”

Tottenham must be more ‘organised’ – Joe Cole

Another ex-England star, Joe Cole, was asked whether Vicario needs more protection or whether the Italian must simply do better at set-pieces. He replied: “A bit of both. He’s a young goalkeeper so he’s gonna learn, you don’t expect him to be the finished article. He was brilliant today at times as well, he’s fantastic in so many areas of his game.

“But from an organisational perspective, Tottenham could bring a player from a different area and say, ‘Your job is to clear the path’.

“Not fouling, you get a player to stop the blocker, his job is to clear the way and then Vicario’s got to be brave and come for crosses. I don’t want to criticise him too much because I think he’s outstanding, but there are areas for him to improve.”

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