Hugo Lloris is a player that has faced a lot of criticism over the last few months, and with good reason. Poor decisionmaking and shocking errors have been fairly common on the part of the Frenchman as of late – and that’s not good enough. He’s duly faced a lot of anger from the stands, and with good reason.
However, credit where credit is due, against Man City on Tuesday evening, he was simply brilliant.
The penalty save will likely gain most of the plaudits, but that only tells part of the story for the Frenchman. He led the team from the back, and he had an answer for everything that City threw at him.
Statistically, he was the Man of the Match – according to Who Scored – but that only tells part of the story. He wasn’t just the best player on the pitch, he was such an important reason as to why the Lilywhites won the game. It was a great finish from Son Heung-min to win the three points – but Lloris’ saves deserve even more credit.
Lloris has really struggled at points this term, and it’s fair to say that, at points, we’ve been considering whether it might be time for him to move on. However, performances like that which came last night show that he’s still a player in his prime. The difference between a good player and a great player is that a great player is able to step up in important games – and Lloris did exactly that.
And long may it continue.
Thoughts?