Report: Spurs coaches bewildered that star doesn’t get recognition he deserves

The Athletic have revealed that coaches at Tottenham have a hard time understanding why Hugo Lloris does not get the credit he deserves.

Lloris has now completed ten years as Tottenham’s number one and has been the captain of the club for more than eight seasons.

The Athletic reveal that when the Frenchman is overlooked for the PFA Team of the Year, the goalkeeping coaches at the North London club shake their heads every year and wonder how the Tottenham man did not make it into the eleven.

The report explains that coaches would regularly ask “why not Hugo” and make the 35-year-old’s case as the goalkeeper himself is quite unassuming and humble, and would never put himself forward in that way.

The Athletic state that Lloris does not even have an agent and has no interest in things like brand sponsorships.

The report quotes Spurs’ third-choice goalkeeper Brandon Austin as saying about the former Lyon man: “It’s a joke really when you see his speed and athleticism up close.”

The publication also explores the numbers behind Lloris’ performances, which shows that the Tottenham star regularly outperforms his peers with respect to shot-stopping.

Based on the expected goals (xG) model, which anticipates how many goals each goalkeeper should have let in over the season based on the quality of shots they faced, Lloris regularly comes out on top.

In fact, the France captain is said to have conceded an astonishing 10.2 goals less than he was expected to in 2016/17 and 9.5 fewer in 2019/20.

Spurs Web Opinion

As the Athletic article points out, Lloris would receive a lot more recognition if he did not play in this era of several world-class goalkeepers.

There is something to the argument that the Frenchman has consistently been in the top three goalkeepers in the Premier League over the last 10 years but perhaps hardly ever been number one.

The likes of Petr Cech, David de Gea and Allison have all perhaps had better individual seasons than Lloris but they have not been able to sustain those levels for as long as the Spurs star.

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