Is Lloris a weak link in Conte’s Spurs?

Tottenham’s title ambitions took a blow when they were beaten in the North London derby by Arsenal at the weekend.

Antonio Conte’s team can point to the dismissal of Emerson Royal midway through the second half as a turning point, but they were already a goal down by then, and were guilty on the day of only playing in patches, and allowing the Gunners to dictate the tempo for much of the match.

Embed from Getty Images

And question marks may yet again be raised over their captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris who once again had a day to forget.

Whilst it may seem heresy to even raise the question about a World Cup winner with France, is Lloris a weak link for Tottenham?

Certainly in this match he was badly at fault for Arsenal’s second goal, parrying a shot from Bukayo Saka back into the danger area, and then getting in a mix up with his centre back Cristian Romero, before allowing the ball to squirm under his body for Gabriel Jesus to bundle home.

He also had a bad day with his feet, with too many of his clearances landing at the feet of an Arsenal player or sailing out of touch.

He remains an excellent shot stopper, as he displayed in the final minute of the game, slinging himself acrobatically to his left to keep Kieran Tierney’s long range effort around the post. But that is a minimum requirement for a Premier League goalkeeper these days.

They are expected also to play out from the back, at times becoming an auxiliary defender, allowing the entire team to play higher up the pitch. And, for all his strengths, Lloris is more than capable of the odd gaffe, as can be seen from his YouTube highlights reel.

The fact is that since joining Spurs in 2012, Lloris has had little serious competition for the number one jersey, and the same might be said for his position with the French National team, for whom he has earned 155 caps so far.

If Spurs have serious ambitions of becoming challengers for the Premier League title, then they may have to move on from Lloris.

Manchester City and Liverpool, the two most successful English teams in the past five years provide an example. City ruthlessly jettisoned Joe Hart and then relegated Claudio Bravo to the substitute’s bench after just one season, in favour of Ederson and his ability with his feet. Similarly, Liverpool used part of the proceeds raised from the sale of Phillipe Coutinho to invest in Allison Becker from Roma.

Closer to home, few Arsenal fans understood why the club bought Aaron Ramsdale last summer when they appeared to have a perfectly good keeper in Bernd Leno. Three games into the season though, Ramsdale replaced Leno, and the German would only play one more Premier League game before being sold to Fulham.

Few now question the decision which has changed the way that Mikel Arteta’s side are able to play, and Spurs may now need to make an equally tough decision.

He may be a long servant at the club, but there is no room for sentiment in football.