Stick or Twist?

TRANSFER TALK


It didn't take the Daily Mail long to suggest we were stepping up interest in Pau Lopez immediately they heard Hugo Lloris will be out for a month, however, they then offered no information to back their headline up, merely repeated the already known story.

I recall writing pieces on fatigue and how they cause muscle injuries. Hugo Lloris got to the final of the European Championships and needed a rest after. he came into the season not having had enough rest and not yet match fit. It was hoped his ability would see him through, however he was at fault for the Everton goal.

Even waiting for a potential flick the goalkeeper must know he can cover the corner the ball is initially heading to. On most occasions there is no flick and on most occasions a save is made. With the player having his back to goal any flick could only have continued the trajectory of the ball and Lloris hadn't sufficiently covered the post or he wasn't fit enough to get across there with his usual aplomb.

It doesn't seem to be a happy hunting ground, he suffered a concussion there in 2013 and insisting he was alright to continue playing, something he later admitted was a mistake. That led to a change in the laws to protect players from themselves in future.

 He appeared to injure himself in the European Championship Final before Portugal scored, he then hasn't had enough rest and hasn't had enough pre-season training to get himself match fit. We saw the England Euro players were below par, all not yet match fit easing their way into the season. We saw Jan Vertonghen off the pace after only a week training.

We have renewed discussions for Georges-Kevin N'Koudou who isn't doing any ball work and is very limited in what training he can do. You can see that he isn't going to be fit if we buy him and that has to be taken into account when discussing price, so the original deal can't stand.

What do we do now? Michel Vorm is pressed into service and it is heartening that the sweeping side of his goalkeeping has improved. he saved our bacon at Everton, I don't think we would have come back from 2-0 down at half-time.

Presumably Luke McGee is our number three and we'll now see him on the bench against Crystal Palace. Perhaps that demonstrates why we need a third goalkeeper, if anything happened to Vorm we would have a young untried and presumably nervous goalkeeper, which isn't going to inspire the confidence of those in front of him.

That could lead to the defence being more nervous which in turn leads to panic, mistakes and more opportunities conceded, making it harder to win games. Subconsciously our two defensive midfielders will want to make sure of their defending which has a knock-on effect on our attacking play.

Do we step up efforts to sign Pau Lopez, if he is the man we have decided we want to develop into our next number one? We may have to dip into our coffers to sign him, our hand may have been forced a little, or do we simply take a chance that everything will be alright?

Plenty for Pochettino to ponder so early in the season.