I just can’t agree
His have been worse and he sets the tone for the team in the same way kane does as striker
He has failed in the basics and he is the captain, leader and most experienced member
If he was conceding goals from a lot of shots and good shots I’d agree. He wasn’t
He, for some reason this season has frequently been playing in his heels rather than his toes. That’s not how he has played his whole career. It’s why he falls backwards so much. Just odd
Lloris has changed over the years and so has the way we play, probably would require a deep amount of analysis without bias to get to something relevant as a conclusion, e.g. is it all Lloris or us moving away from a style/system he can play in plus his natural deterioration with age
My biased recollection below
- Pre Friedel we had a brick show of keepers for some time
- We got Friedel in who was a decent consistent keeper that stuck to his line (pretty much never came for anything)
- We got Lloris who initially had a reputation of a sweeper keeper, came out a lot, would cover the high lines, cut out stuff
- Always a good top tier shot stopper
- His kicking/distribution was always a weak part of his game
- After a few years there was some questions around his vulnerability to shots low & close to him (he tended to use his hands for low vs. feet)
- Certainly under Jose to Conte era he's become stuck to his line (don't see the sweeper keeper anymore)
- He's actually adapted to a few more foot saves now (improvement)
- Unfortunately his handling, positioning and reactions have deteriorated
- a notable mention is his game was falling off before the elbow injury a few years back, he came back much improved and then dropped off again (sign that it's mental/fatigue?)
I think he's got older, modern football requires better distribution, play out from the back and around a press (something he never was good at), our defense has sat deeper under the "pragmatic" managers of last few years which puts him under more pressure and doesn't leverage the sweeper side of his game (not sure he's good at that anymore anyway).
Great club servant but if money/priorities had allowed, we should have swapped to a more modern game suited keeper 2-3 years ago.