Jamie Redknapp pinned the blame on Guglielmo Vicario for Tottenham‘s opening goal at Anfield, saying the 29-year-old Italy international had no business failing to keep out Dominik Szoboszlai’s 18th-minute free-kick during Spurs’ Premier League clash with Liverpool on Sunday.
Speaking on Sky Sports at half-time, as reported by BBC Sport, Redknapp acknowledged Szoboszlai’s quality but insisted the goal belonged in a different category to the Hungarian’s celebrated efforts against Arsenal and Manchester City. He pointed to Vicario’s footwork as the core problem, pointing out that the goalkeeper almost tripped over his own feet, generated no elevation, and failed to move correctly into position. Despite getting a strong hand on the strike, Vicario succeeded only in diverting the ball into the side of the net rather than around the post. As far as Redknapp was concerned, the save was well within Vicario’s range, and there was no excuse for it.
“We have seen some beauties from Dominik Szoboszlai, like against Arsenal and Manchester City, but this one is a goalkeeping mistake.
“Just look at Vicario’s feet pattern, he almost trips himself over. He doesn’t get any elevation, doesn’t move properly. He gets a really big hand to it. He has to save it.”
BBC Sport pundit Phil McNulty said much the same, calling the effort feeble and saying the positioning error must have left interim head coach Igor Tudor seething, particularly after Spurs had decently started the match. McNulty also noted that Vicario remained on the pitch following the mistake, with no substitution made at the interval.
The goal came at the end of a week that had already gone badly for Vicario. Tudor had made the bold decision to drop the Italian for Antonín Kinsky against Atlético Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday, only to be forced into a 16th-minute substitution after Kinsky conceded three goals inside 15 minutes. Vicario entered the fray and steadied things, but questions about his form have grown louder, with Inter Milan and Juventus both reportedly monitoring his situation ahead of a potential summer departure.
Is Vicario a confidence case or a permanent liability Tottenham can no longer carry?
Tottenham sit just one point above the relegation zone with nine matches remaining, having gone eleven Premier League games without a win and suffered six consecutive defeats across all competitions; a sequence that has no precedent in the club’s 144-year history. Against that backdrop, a goalkeeper letting in a free-kick he should save at Anfield is not just a bad moment; it cuts straight into a relegation battle.
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Vicario’s errors this season are starting to look like a pattern, not a run of bad luck. For a goalkeeper who kept a clean sheet in the Europa League final just ten months ago and won the London Football Awards Goalkeeper of the Year in 2024, the regression makes you wonder whether being dropped by Tudor midweek, however justified, has gotten inside his head. At 29, Vicario carries no excuse of inexperience. The flaws Redknapp picked out, poor footwork, flat positioning, are the kind of things any top-flight goalkeeper should fix, which is exactly why each repeat looks worse than the last.
