Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has admitted he is struggling mentally since suffering defeat with France in the World Cup final, but has defended his recent form for Spurs.
Lloris has been with Spurs for over a decade and has made 441 appearances for the club across all competitions (transfermarkt). In that time, it’s safe to say the Frenchman has served the club well and put in some fine performances, but his form of late has been fairly disastrous.
This season, Lloris has made four mistakes leading to goals, more than any other player in the Premier League. In the last week alone, Lloris spilled a Bukayo Saka shot in the North London derby to give Arsenal the lead, and was been beaten at his near post in the defeat to Manchester City on Thursday night..
Granted, Lloris’ error in the 4-2 defeat against City wasn’t the only issue for Spurs during the game, but it’s yet another example of the Spurs captain failing his team. In the interview, Lloris addresses this situation.
He told the Evening Standard: “I can’t complain. You’re a professional and you just follow a rhythm. But obviously, when you’re involved with the national team and you go until the last day of the World Cup, you come back and miss mental freshness. But you need to get back on track and help your team.
“When you look at the Arsenal goal, I can be in a good position but the deflection hit the ball on my chest and with the spin it goes over [the line].
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“It’s something that even if I wanted to do on purpose, I can’t. Even last night, when you look at the third [City] goal, a deflection makes the ball go over my knee.”
On what can be done to solve this, Lloris said: “At any moment I try to anticipate, just setting and waiting. There are a lot of things like that happening to our team. It’s a period where we need to stick together, keep working and hopefully bring the luck back.”
Spurs Web Opinion
To be honest, this sounds like a lot of excuses for what is essentially poor goalkeeping. I have always been a huge fan of Lloris, but I fear he is in a position now where the errors are really getting to him mentally and I worry he won’t be able to recover.
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