Ivan Provedel was originally brought in by Lazio to back up Luis Maximiano, after a long and seesawing negotiation with Spezia. On the other hand, the Portuguese goalie had a major blunder six minutes into his debut, where he was expelled for handing the ball outside the box. The teammate has taken over from there.
Coach Maurizio Sarri hasn’t gone back to the ex-Granada man even in the first Europa League tilt versus Feyenoord. And he might not feature versus Midtjylland, even though he has better chances than last week.
Provedel has fully taken advantage of the opportunity and offered solid performances. As per Corriere dello Sport, he’s putting up strong numbers in multiple stats. He has saved 77,3 percent of the shots he faced. He trails only Juan Musso (84,2), Perin (83,3), Ionut Radu (78,7), and Luigi Sepe (78,6).
Sarri likes him in particular for the prowess with his feet. He’s completed 50 long-balls and leads the League in such category. Andrea Consigli (47), Vanja Milikovic-Savic and Juan Musso (45) round out the podium. In addition, he has had 160 total touches. Just Samir Handanovic (191) and Consigli (164) have been more involved in the passing game.
Our Take on Provedel and Maximiano
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for the Portuguese and further proof that performances, not price tags, establish the pecking order. The latter likely has more upside, but he will have to wait for his opportunity because the Italian shot-stopper, while unheralded, has done nothing to lose the starting job. He had widely proven to be capable at Spezia too. It’s not a great look for the directors. One has to wonder whether they will eventually start to put pressure given the different costs.
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