Manchester City vs Tottenham: I know I'd rather have Hugo Lloris behind me than Claudio Bravo, says Danny Murphy

Getty Images
Danny Murphy20 January 2017

As an outfield player, it gives you comfort going into a game if your goalkeeper is solid and reliable.

On the other hand, if you are thinking, “what will he do today?” it puts a bit of negativity in your mind.

As a Tottenham defender, how good must it feel to play in front of Hugo Lloris? Not only can he sweep up when the ball is played behind you, he is lightning quick.

A defender thinks, “the keeper is sharp off his line and he can cover me”.

That means the back players can push a bit higher up the field, knowing that if the ball is played into the space behind them, Lloris can deal with it.

The picture is rather different at Manchester City. Claudio Bravo might be better with his feet than Joe Hart but he is not a better goalkeeper.

If they were going to make a change, they needed to bring in someone superior to Bravo.

I feel for him a bit as City are not a defensive team, so he has been exposed quite a lot, but he has not taken well to English football.

He has let in a few goals that he shouldn’t have and he does not command his area. He tries to punch balls that really should be caught.

Trust is vital in football. Playing in central midfield, I had to trust the centre-backs to cover my blind spots when we did not have the ball.

The goalkeeper has to do the same for the centre-backs. When I played with Mark Schwarzer at Fulham from 2008-12, you knew he would rarely be beaten by free-kicks or long-range shots.

At corners, my job was to cover one of the posts and Mark would shout “out!” or “stay!”, depending on where the ball dropped.

I trusted him 100 per cent to make those calls. With other keepers, though, I might make my own decision, which is not ideal.

You have to know you can rely on your goalkeeper to do the right things. You don’t want to worry about him dropping crosses or making a bad decision under pressure.

In Pictures | Inside Tottenham's new stadium

1/11

With Mark, we could be certain of that. I imagine it is the same for the Spurs players with Lloris. With Bravo, I’m not so sure.

Bravo might argue that it is harder for him to impress because City’s defending has been so poor at times. He is not in control of the tactics and, of course, things can change.

David De Gea started poorly when he moved to Manchester United in 2011. But he was only 20, whereas Bravo is 33.

It would be silly for Tottenham to underestimate City but, among themselves, they will think they have a hell of a chance.

They are well-balanced and confident in how they play. Pep Guardiola, on the other hand, does not even seem to know his best team.

London football! Follow Man City vs Spurs live with Standard Sport. Click here for more information.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in