Tottenham Hotspur produced a dreadful display away at RB Leipzig in the second leg of their Champions League tie which saw the north London outfit crash out of Europe 4-0 on aggregate.
For the sixth game in succession their goalkeeper Hugo Lloris failed to keep a clean sheet, a feat he has achieved just once since returning from injury in January when he was named man of the match in the win over Manchester City. Aside from that one outstanding display, it has been a mostly disappointing campaign for the Frenchman, and the World Cup-winning captain’s place in Didier Deschamps’ Euro 2020 side could be at risk.
No club in the Premier League this season have kept fewer clean sheets than Tottenham Hotspur, and they have four from 29 matches, the same as Aston Villa and A.F.C Bournemouth. Lloris has contributed just half of those, two, in 12 top-flight appearances. It is difficult to tell how much of the responsibility lays on the shoulders of Lloris or the defence in front of him. Still, on two occasions, the French international has scuppered himself by making errors that have led to the opposition finding the back of the net.
The Tottenham shot-stopper has not been helped by having his season interrupted due to an elbow injury which kept him out of 21 matches. He played nine games for Spurs before being sidelined, conceding 19 goals for an average of 2.11 per match, though seven of those came in the Champions League group stage defeat to Bayern Munich, as per WhoScored. Since returning Lloris has conceded 13 in nine appearances across all competitions for an average of 1.44 per game. Omitting the freak result against the Bundesliga champions, the goalkeeper is beginning to improve, but it might be too little too late.
Steve Mandanda took the place of Lloris for France while he was injured in their final Euro 2020 qualifiers and competently filled the role. The Olympique Marseille goalkeeper has the joint-most clean sheets in Ligue 1 this season, 12, and it will be fascinating to see who Deschamps selects for the friendlies this month against Ukraine and Finland. Given that the Marseille keeper is flying and Lloris continues to stutter, there is a good chance that if he does not improve the Spurs man could be watching from the sidelines in the summer as France bid to gain the title of European Champions.
