After falling to a 1-0 defeat at home to fierce rivals Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, there was an expectation among fans that Tottenham Hotspur would turn up and brush aside Coventry City in the League Cup last night to get their season rolling – they didn’t.
Instead, Ange Postecoglou put out a team full of second-string players, and up until the 88th minute, it looked like he was going to pay the price, only for Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson to bail him out.
It might have been the worst performance of the Australian’s reign thus far, and while the two goalscorers deserve credit for their efforts, much of the team does not, including one young star who wasn’t terrible but still shouldn’t start against Brentford on the weekend.
Lucas Bergvall’s game vs Coventry
Yes, the youngster in question is Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall, who was making his first start for the club last night.
The first thing to say is that, unfortunately for Postecoglou, several starters played themselves out of the team for this weekend and looked considerably worse than the 18-year-old.
That said, it was no surprise that players like Timo Werner and Fraser Forster were disappointing, whereas the excitement and hype around the young Swede made it harder to ignore his somewhat underwhelming display.
Now, to his credit, the Stockholm-born gem looked bright here and there, never shied away from the ball and didn’t make any huge mistakes that cost the team.
However, aside from looking busy, he struggled to have a tangible impact on the match, struggled to play the right ball when presented with the chance to do so and lost possession a few too many times, which would all be forgivable against a top side in the Premier League, but Coventry are 14th in the Championship and may well be the worst team the youngster plays this season.
It’s an opinion shared by the Standard’s Dan Kilpatrick, who awarded the midfielder a 6/10 on the night, writing that he ‘always made himself available but [the] final ball was lacking.’
This appraisal is backed up by the player’s statistics from the match as well, as in his 62 minutes of action, he took 47 touches, maintained a passing accuracy of just 87%, misplaced four of five crosses, failed in 50% of his dribbles, lost five of eight duels, lost the ball 13 times equating to once every 4.7 minutes and made one error that led to a Coventry shot.
|
Bergvall’s game in numbers |
|
|---|---|
|
Minutes |
62′ |
|
Goals |
0 |
|
Assists |
0 |
|
Touches |
47 |
|
Passing Accuracy |
27/31 (87%) |
|
Key Passes |
1 |
|
Crosses (Accurate) |
5 (1) |
|
Shots |
0 |
|
Dribbles (Successful) |
2 (1) |
|
Duels (Won) |
8 (3) |
|
Lost Possession |
13 |
|
Errors Leading to a Shot |
1 |
Overall, it was not a horror debut for Bergvall, and given the immense potential many believe him to possess, he’ll almost certainly make amends in his next start, but with a tough Brentford team coming up on Saturday, that start should not come then.
Who should start in place of Bergvall
So, while several players could come in for the young Swede against the Bees, his compatriot Dejan Kulusevski should take his place.
The experienced Swedish international has spent much of his time at Spurs playing on the wing, but recently, Postecoglou has taken to starting him in midfield, and as most fans will attest, that is where he does his best work.
For example, you only have to look back at last night’s game to see the impact he can have, as he came on late for the injured Werner and floated between midfield and the wide positions.
In just 16 minutes on the pitch, he created one big chance, provided one assist, took a shot on target and had a shot blocked, took 15 touches, and received an 8/10 rating from Kipatrick.
Moreover, despite being on the losing side in the North London Derby, the former Juventus ace was one of the few shining lights for the team in midfield, for which he was given a 7/10 by football.london’s Alasdair Gold.
Lastly, James Maddison will likely come in for the underwhelming Pape Matar Sarr on Saturday, so there are few other offensively-minded options for the manager to pick from.
Ultimately, last night was a dreadful day at the office for Spurs, and while Bergvall certainly wasn’t the worst player on the pitch, he is still not ready to start a Premier League game, no less one against a team who almost drew at the Etihad last weekend. Therefore, Postecoglou should drop the youngster back to the bench on Saturday and start Kulusevski in his place, as he can be far more influential in big games.
