Not to get defensive...

Article by Cam Lessard

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Hugo Lloris is widely considered one of the best keepers in the World. His season has been riddled with acrobatic saves, amazing set piece reads, and daring, well timed defensive sweeps. On top of all this, he has emerged as the team's captain, supplanting out-of-favor Younes Kaboul, oft absent Emmanuel Adebayor, and leadership quiet Jan Vertonghen. It says a lot about the lack leadership on a team when a keeper, someone who cannot actively be in the referee's ear at all times, is the best option. Nevertheless, both in leadership and performance, has been world class this season. One question comes to mind, however... Where would Spurs be without Lloris?

What does Tottenham have in common with the three Relegation zoned teams, Burnley, QPR, and Leicester? A look at the table will tell you that these four teams have allowed 45 or more goals this season. Tottenham, having played in 30 matches thus far, are allowing 1.5 goals per game on average. This staggering number becomes even more reflective when in comparison to those clubs ahead of Spurs. For example, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Southampton all allow less than one goal per game.

A classic rebuttal would be..."that number does not matter if a team scores more than it allows." This notion is entirely true when gauging the standings. For example, Tottenham has a Goal For/Goals Against ratio of 1.11, which is 7th best in the table and identical to their actual position. So, in terms of defining what constitutes a good team, this number can be very telling. Fortunately, Spurs have been one of the best teams in terms of generating goals. This, by no coincidence, sheds more light on Harry Kane's season than it does on the team as a collective. Defensively, however, the Spurs are horrible. There is no way of getting around that; regardless of how well off the team is offensively.

Hugo Lloris

Back to the original question, now... Where would Spurs be without Lloris? They would probably be lumped somewhere in the middle of Swansea and Newcastle.

The basic statistics can't confirm where Spurs would be in the table, but let's say, for the sake of this argument, that Michel Vorm has been the keeper all season long. All things the same, how many more goals would Vorm have allowed? It's a rhetorical question, but it lends itself to stressing the importance of Hugo Lloris and illustrating the inferiority of the defense.

After Lloris's untimely exit from the match against Leicester, we had a small taste of what life would be like without him. Luckily, not only is Leicester a low level team in terms of talent, but they're also going through an unimaginable stretch of being completely snake bitten. Even still, Leicester managed 3 goals; an embarrassment to say the least.

Without Lloris, Spurs are marginal at best. As assembled, this roster is not good enough to keep a player like Lloris around for the long term. If this team, the defense especially, does not make significant strides in the summer, we could face the permanent taste of life without a world class keeper. Lloris seems like a loyal man, who enjoys the responsibilities of leadership, but there will come a time when his thirst for trophies and competitiveness overcome his willingness to deal with a porous defense on middling team. Mauricio Pochettino's number one priority this summer has to be improving the backline, for the sake of keeping Lloris and, ultimately, the sake of the team and his own tenure.

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