Tottenham Hotspur looked to be in trouble when their captain and first-choice keeper Hugo Lloris collapsed in a heap against Brighton earlier in the season.
The Frenchman had somehow managed to give away a goal with a blunder while also dislocating his elbow, something that was due to keep him out until the new year.
Up stepped Paulo Gazzaniga into a first-team role, the first time he had consistently played as a starting keeper in his Spurs career.
While many would have questioned his reliability and experience, the Argentine has generally performed admirably, bar a couple of mistakes here and there.
Under Mourinho, the shot-stopper is now utilising his pin-point long kicks to Tottenham’s advantage on the break, as well as looking like a safe pair of hands between the sticks.
Ex-Spurs keeper, Paul Robinson, has now admitted that he questioned Gazzaniga to start with but has been pleasantly surprised.
When asked which Spurs player he has most changed his mind about, Robinson said (Football Insider): “Gazzaniga probably, because I looked at the stats, I looked at his record and he’s been generally a number two through his playing career.
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“He hasn’t played where he’s been, it’s generally been number 2 or 3. For the length of a career that he’s had, for his age and games-to-age ratio, it doesn’t add up so I was worried whether he could step in and do it on a consistent basis and he’s done that.
“Hugo Lloris is going to be out for a while longer and Gazzaniga, at the moment, he’s looking a safe pair of hands.”
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