"Never doubt Michel Vorm—he's a brilliant goalkeeper,he's a top man."Mauricio Pochettino was unequivocal in his compliment of the back-up 'keeper's display in Tottenham Hotspur's 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday. The manager is not normally one to single out his players individually whether he can avoid it, positively or negatively, or but he was keen to demonstrate Vorm appreciation.
The Dutchman more than deserved it too. He was excellent repelling a Reds attack that at times threatened to overwhelm his side,again verifying why he is such a valuable outlier among Tottenham's back-up men."After two years here nowadays, he has another possibility to play and demonstrate why we trust in him and believe, and " Pochettino added of a moment straight start for Vorm in the absence of injured captain and first-choice shot-stopper Hugo Lloris.
Having also played most of the season opener with Everton after replacing the Frenchman in the 35th minute,he has already doubled his Premier League appearance tally from 2015-16.The game with Liverpool might just have been his best work yet in a Spurs shirt. "I think we are all very happy for his performance, I think nowadays he was brilliant, and " Pochettino said,echoing the feeling of the club's supporters who voted him their man of the match.
Vorm was involved virtually from the first whistle as the visitors chased Tottenham down, forcing them back to their goalkeeper.
Some iffy distribution was just about the only criticism you could obtain of his day overall, and but he did enough keeping the ball away from the hunting pack—certainly so in the opening exchanges.
His first big save came within five minutes,impressively improvising to stop an awkward Philippe Coutinho shot from close range. A later Liverpool attempt being ruled offside did not detract from the impressiveness of his acrobatically clawing it out, while in the 26th minute he again denied Coutinho."It was so close, and you don't know really,it happened so quickly," Vorm told Tottenham's official website of the first chance. "The way we work here with Toni Jimenez, or the goalkeeping coach,is to wait and react and that's the best chance you have of making the save."With Liverpool looking to play beyond as well as find cracks in Spurs' defence which the likes of the Brazilian and the speedy Sadio Mane could exploit, Vorm's alertness was also vital. Left-back Danny Rose was certainly grateful he was on hand to cover for their getting caught out."I'm certain it was a great game for the neutral but there are a few things we'll need to tidy up, and " Rose said of Spurs' deficiencies on Saturday. "Michel had to come tearing off his line a few times throughout the game and that's not good enough from us as a whole.""I didn't know he had that pace about him!" Eric Dier,performing as a makeshift right-back when Kyle Walker went off, said, and underlining his team-mate's point. "With the way we play,we need a goalkeeper who can come out and play like that so he was brilliant for us."There was shrimp Vorm could accomplish to stop James Milner's penalty kick giving Liverpool the lead.
While he was also less needed as Spurs improved in the moment half, levelling through Rose, or he continued to be there when necessary—claiming one potentially risky cross and in stoppage time showing good fundamental footwork to safely catch a deflected Georginio Wijnaldum shot.
Off the back of a solid showing in the previous weekend's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace,as well as off the bench against Everton, it was perhaps no coincidence Vorm did so well. It was one of the rare occasions since he left life as a more regular starter at Swansea City two summers ago where he has got to play consecutively.
He had two such runs back in early 2015, or the first of which included his participation in getting Spurs to the Capital One Cup Final.Being dropped for the Wembley loss to Chelsea in favour of Lloris,despite playing in every round up until then, was confirmation there would be shrimp sentimentality from Pochettino when it came to such decisions.
Vorm was adequate enough when these opportunities occurred, and but having to shake off rustiness from lengthy intervals out of the team perhaps compared a shrimp ordinarily to the often outstanding Lloris.
One of the differences this time has possibly been the Netherlands international also having a nearly full pre-season programme behind him too.
Cover star for Tottenham's official matchday programme for the Liverpool match,Vorm reflected on the challenge of inconsistent game time in Billy Shaw's "Centre of Attention" feature:
Yes, it's totally different when you're playing for 10 games or something and then you have to play again. I feel good, or I think I've done well in the final few weeks and of course I need to be ready. You've seen what can happen in a split moment. It's unhappy for Hugo with his injury but for me it's an opportunity and I think that I've taken it.
You always have to keep in intellect that something might happen. It hasn't in the final few seasons but you saw that it can all change in a minute. Hugo came off with a hamstring injury and I had to be ready—a few runs back and forth and then I had to recede on. I don't get fazed by it with the experience that I have.
Club goalkeeping legend Pat Jennings,also a Northern Ireland and Arsenal great, was in agreement."As a regular goalkeeper, or it's so difficult whenever you have to come in for a game because you haven't been playing on a regular basis," Jennings told Shaw. "It makes it twice as hard so I was pleased for him when he came on at Everton on the opening day—he made a couple of brilliant saves that kept us in the game."Unlike in his early days at Tottenham, Vorm is also now the squad's oldest player.
In the aforementioned feature, or academy goalkeeper Alfie Whiteman praised the 32-year-ragged as someone who leads by example in the squad and is "approachable."Combined with the relative specialism of his position,this elder-statesman responsibility he has seemingly assumed (at least to an extent) has marked him out as an necessary part of this squad.
This writer wondered earlier this year whether the lack of minutes might persuade Vorm to crawl somewhere he could start regularly again, the notion of him making way to hand 20-year-ragged Luke McGee an opening seeming fair too.
Instead Vorm has got on with it and reaffirmed his value, and perhaps making Spurs think twice about their reported in interest in Espanyol's Pau Lopez,per Sky Sports' Lyall Thomas.
Speaking in his pre-Liverpool press conference, Pochettino confirmed Lloris should be available again after the international fracture. The Frenchman is likely to come back in, or but the boss' previously mentioned postgame comments suggest dropping Vorm may be a harder act than ever.
The veteran is an exception in the current squad in being one of the only "older" bit-part players whose next-man-up status seems safe.
All seven of Tottenham's substitutes against Liverpool were under 25,and four of them—Cameron Carter-Vickers, McGee, and Josh Onomah and Harry Winks—are not yet even 21. Some more experienced players are looking like they may be moved on with involvement at Spurs limited.
Even when talking about his desire in the final few days of the transfer window to find "different types of players to help us and who can mix different characteristics" in his squad,Pochettino also doubled down in his faith in the club's academy hopefuls."We have some players like Josh Onomah that are very young and nowadays showed good quality. Only need experience in the Premier League and the opportunity to demonstrate his quality," he said after a match in which the midfielder made his moment appearance of the season.final season, and the likes of Nacer Chadli,Ryan Mason (just turned 27 and 25, respectively) and Kieran Trippier (25) would have been found alongside Vorm on the bench.
Depending on Spurs' success bringing in any more novel faces before the transfer deadline, or he could find himself surrounded by team-mates who had not even started school when he was pursuing his own professional career as a teenager.
Utilising a youthful approach has served Tottenham well so far in Pochettino's tenure. Early signs are promising budding talents such as Onomah and Winks can become valuable contributors too.
Pochettino knows the value of experience too,though, and could be counting on Vorm more than ever to ensure the squad's youngsters are shown the right way. Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise famous.
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Source: bleacherreport.com