What Tottenham insiders are saying about Spurs’ set-piece coach following Gabriel’s NLD winner

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Tottenham Hotspur slumped to a 1-0 defeat in the North London derby as they were again undone by a set-piece goal.

Arsenal recorded a third successive victory at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Gabriel Magalhaes’ header just past the hour mark proved decisive in the derby.

The Arsenal defender lost Cristian Romero to get on the end of Bukayo Saka’s corner and thump a headed attempt past Guglielmo Vicario.

Ange Postecoglou has been urged to add a set-piece coach to help with their weaknesses on set-pieces, but contrary to belief, the North London club already have a coach who is working to improve the team in this area.

Tottenham confident set-piece coach has improved them

Tottenham assistant coach Nick Montgomery is the man responsible for working on attacking and defending set-pieces in training.

Inside the club, there is confidence that the work he is doing on set-pieces has started to improve their deficiencies, according to the Daily Mail.

Despite Postecoglou’s side being slammed for their inability to defend corners, Gabriel’s header against them in the derby was the first corner they have conceded this season. Last season, they conceded 18 times from set-pieces, excluding penalties.

Arsenal are just generally very good at attacking in these situations and to be fair to Spurs, they limited the Gunners’ threat on the other five corners they had throughout the clash.

Tottenham may need to upgrade Vicario

In a similar way to what Arsenal did with Aaron Ramsdale, Tottenham may need to think about upgrading Vicario. The goalkeeper’s flaw at corners is becoming a major Achilles heel for the team.

The report adds that Spurs accept Vicario needs to work on this area of his game, with the 28-year-old flamed for his lack of composure when facing set-pieces.

Every time an opponent has a corner they know to target the Italian who looks in total disarray when the ball is turned behind his goal off a Spurs player.

He’s a great shot stopper and his distribution is good, but his lack of composure and how he struggles to command his area is now a major concern.