Tottenham Hotspur have one of the toughest fixtures in world football coming up as the international break finally comes to an end.
On Saturday, Spurs head to reigning Premier League champions Manchester City for a top-flight game of paramount importance to both teams.
Tottenham have blown hot and cold this season, while Man City have lost four games in a row for the first time under Pep Guardiola.
Spurs have shown they can beat anyone on their day and have already defeated the Citizens this season, knocking them out of the Carabao Cup.
However, Ange Postecoglou’s charges have been lacking consistency and losing to the likes of Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town.
Ian Wright, Roy Keane and a host of other leading pundits spoke about Tottenham in the latest episode of The Overlap.
Wright had a message for Ange Postecoglou regarding his tactics, while Keane had some criticism of one of Spurs’ players.
READ MORE: Ange Postecoglou shares when Micky van de Ven should be back from injury for Tottenham
Ian Wright urges Tottenham to shut up shop late on as Roy Keane slates Guglielmo Vicario
Wright reiterated that Tottenham’s inconsistency is something the coaches and players need to work on,
He also reckons Postecoglou needs to be more proactive when it comes to holding on to leads and seeing games out.
“Tottenham need is to work on the inconsistency but surely he should make some form of defensive change to hold on to something and to finish the game out,” said Wright.
Keane then chimed in, saying Postecoglou gets criticism for not having a set-piece coach, which is also the case at Everton, who are actually decent at defending set-pieces.
The Irishman then touched upon how goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario struggles at defending corners and free kicks, saying that’s not a case of “DNA” or Postecoglou’s methods.
“He gets criticized for not having a set-piece coach, and he defends that and that’s his right,” began Keane.
“But there’s other clubs out there who actually aren’t doing that bad who have no set-piece coaches. Everton don’t have a set-piece coach and they’re actually one of the best.
“Sometimes you talk about defending set-pieces, when you’re attacking – we look at his goalkeeper, is that down to the DNA of Spurs or the manager? That’s just giving bad goals away from corners.”
Valid points from Ian Wright and Roy Keane
Both pundits make good points. Although Postecoglou’s style of play is exciting and effective most of the time, shutting up shop in the latter stages of a game almost feels like common sense.
As for Vicario, he’s a great goalkeeper for the most part, but his weakness on set-pieces is fast becoming a big worry for Spurs.
Some of Vicario’s performances this season have been criticised by fans and the media, and with the transfer window coming up, there’s a good chance another goalkeeper will be on Postecoglou’s agenda.
For instance, it has been reported that Spurs are keeping tabs on Lille stopper Lucas Chevalier.
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