Paulo Gazzaniga to start in goal for Tottenham in League Cup semifinal

This season, Paulo Gazzaniga has leapfrogged ahead of Michel Vorm to become Tottenham Hotspur’s #2 goalkeeper behind Hugo Lloris. Along with that comes the responsibility of being Spurs’ starting keeper for domestic cups — he has started every one of the League Cup matches this season as well as Friday’s FA Cup win at Tranmere.

So it’s no real surprise then that he has been named as the starting keeper for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semifinal match against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium. What’s interesting is that Tottenham took the step to actually confirm it before the official team sheets were released.

This is a bit unusual. Apart from team news which regularly rules players out of competitions, it’s pretty uncommon for Spurs to actually say who IS going to start ahead of the match. But I can understand why. Michel Vorm served as Cup Keeper for Spurs the past couple of seasons, and the question of whether Mauricio Pochettino should start Vorm or Lloris in goal in the semifinal against Manchester United was a topic of discussion both before and after the match. (If you don’t recall, Vorm got the start and Spurs lost the match.)

It could be as simple as the club wanting to stop the speculation before it even begins. And that’s fine — Gazzaniga has been pretty good this season, apart from having the tendency to flap at crosses. We probably shouldn’t have expected anything different anyway, as Pochettino is loyal to his players and was always going to be unlikely to bench GAZINGA for Lloris even in the face of a big match. Dance with them whats brought you.