Fraser Forster: A quick shoutout | OneFootball

Days after Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-0 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium towards the end of last month, goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario announced on his social media that he was undergoing surgery on his ankle. It was also confirmed that he had played through a broken bone in his ankle for 60 minutes during that win over City.

As expected, Spurs fans seriously feared the worst, with 36-year old back up goalkeeper Fraser Forster set to be the number one, at the very least until January, where the club would then have the option to bring somebody in.

Some love for Fraser Forster during his time as number one

Yet, the big man has been the absolute least of the many problems that have surfaced since that City game. If you told someone that Ange’s side would not win any of their next five (and counting) games after that win, many would have attributed that, at least in part, to not having Vicario between the sticks.

In the end, Forster is the reason that Spurs’ form since then is DDLLD. Without him, that form would pretty much read as LLLLL. Particularly in the draws with Fulham in the Premier League, and Rangers in the Europa League, the former England international has seriously impressed with his shot stopping.

We know how hard it is to teach an old dog new tricks, but the keepers distribution was not so bad in the game against Rangers either, managing to play around the high press. He had a couple of dodgy long balls, but they tended to be after given hospital passes by his team mates. Joe Hart recently explained how Ange can help an older player adapt to his ways of playing.

Whilst he can move in slow motion sometimes, this is a keeper with serious pedigree. Some people may remember his performance for Celtic in an icon 2-1 win over Barcelona in the Champions League back in 2012, where he made 13 saves. Furthermore, his quick distribution lead to Celtic’s all important second goal.

Such was the standard of Forster’s performance, Lionel Messi described it as “the best goalkeeping performance I have ever seen”, as far as co-signs go, you can’t get much better than that. No doubt he is not the same goalkeeper he was back then, but this is a player who has seen it all, and knows how to keep cool in the big moments.

These performances have come with a disjointed back line, and a number of central defensive duos. Added to how exposed you can be when playing in such a high octane system, his performances have just been really incredible. If Thomas Tuchel picked his first England squad tomorrow, you’d think Forster would have a fair chance of being included.