Despite having had close shaves with the Premier League title in the last 2 seasons, seasoned pundit and Times columnist Tony Cascarino is of the opinion that Tottenham cannot emerge victorious in the race for the topmost spot on the topflight log with Hugo Lloris manning their goal.
The French international’s error at the death, mistakenly allowing Marcos Alonso’s shot to squeeze through his arms at the near post, led to Chelsea’s winner on Sunday.
Cascarino claims the Wembley howler isn’t the only reason he believes Lloris is not a Premier League-winning goalkeeper, claiming that: “The France No 1 doesn’t command the penalty area like Thibaut Courtois of Chelsea.
“I think he’s a very good shot stopper but he’s not very good with his feet and I don’t think he is anywhere near the level of David De Gea of Manchester United.
“I think Lloris is close to Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet in terms of ability. I think he is about the fifth-best goalkeeper in the Premier League.
“If Tottenham had a better goalkeeper, I think they might have won the league already.
“If you look at most Premier League winners their goalkeeper has been extraordinary, and I just think Lloris is good, nothing more.
“And I don’t see an improving goalkeeper there; I don’t feel he has improved since he moved to Tottenham five years ago.”
Although the side’s skipper has 75 clean sheets in 213 first-team outings since arriving Tottenham in 2012, with 24 of them last season in 34 games, his errors leading to goals numbers leave little to be desired.
Last term, no player committed more errors that led to an opposition shot than Lloris (6) in the Premier League, while he is now level with Simon Mignolet (10) for most errors leading directly to a goal in the last 4 PL seasons.
Perhaps if he adds some level of consistency and concentration to his game, he could be mentioned in the same berth with the Manuel Neuers and Gianluigi Buffons someday.
Without a doubt, Tottenham have to get a goalie that would give their skipper a run for the money if they indeed want to win the Premier League.
