After falling to a 1-0 defeat at residence to fierce rivals Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, there was an expectation amongst followers that Tottenham Hotspur would flip up and brush apart Coventry Metropolis within the League Cup final night time to get their season rolling – they did not.
As an alternative, Ange Postecoglou put out a group filled with second-string gamers, and up till the 88th minute, it appeared like he was going to pay the worth, just for Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson to bail him out.
It may need been the worst efficiency of the Australian’s reign up to now, and whereas the 2 goalscorers deserve credit score for his or her efforts, a lot of the group doesn’t, together with one younger star who wasn’t horrible however nonetheless should not begin towards Brentford on the weekend.
Lucas Bergvall’s recreation vs Coventry
Sure, the teenager in query is Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall, who was making his first begin for the membership final night time.
The very first thing to say is that, sadly for Postecoglou, a number of starters performed themselves out of the group for this weekend and appeared significantly worse than the 18-year-old.
That mentioned, it was no shock that gamers like Timo Werner and Fraser Forster had been disappointing, whereas the joy and hype across the younger Swede made it more durable to disregard his considerably underwhelming show.
Now, to his credit score, the Stockholm-born gem appeared shiny right here and there, by no means shied away from the ball and did not make any enormous errors that price the group.
Nonetheless, other than trying busy, he struggled to have a tangible impression on the match, struggled to play the appropriate ball when offered with the possibility to take action and misplaced possession just a few too many occasions, which might all be forgivable towards a prime facet within the Premier League, however Coventry are 14th within the Championship and could be the worst group the teenager performs this season.
It is an opinion shared by the Customary’s Dan Kilpatrick, who awarded the midfielder a 6/10 on the night time, writing that he ‘all the time made himself out there however [the] remaining ball was missing.’
This appraisal is backed up by the participant’s statistics from the match as nicely, as in his 62 minutes of motion, he took 47 touches, maintained a passing accuracy of simply 87%, misplaced 4 of 5 crosses, failed in 50% of his dribbles, misplaced 5 of eight duels, misplaced the ball 13 occasions equating to as soon as each 4.7 minutes and made one error that led to a Coventry shot.
|
Bergvall’s recreation in numbers |
|
|---|---|
|
Minutes |
62′ |
|
Objectives |
0 |
|
Assists |
0 |
|
Touches |
47 |
|
Passing Accuracy |
27/31 (87%) |
|
Key Passes |
1 |
|
Crosses (Correct) |
5 (1) |
|
Photographs |
0 |
|
Dribbles (Profitable) |
2 (1) |
|
Duels (Gained) |
8 (3) |
|
Misplaced Possession |
13 |
|
Errors Resulting in a Shot |
1 |
|
All Stats through Sofascore |
|
General, it was not a horror debut for Bergvall, and given the immense potential many consider him to own, he’ll virtually actually make amends in his subsequent begin, however with a tricky Brentford group developing on Saturday, that begin shouldn’t come then.
Who ought to begin instead of Bergvall
So, whereas a number of gamers may are available in for the younger Swede towards the Bees, his compatriot Dejan Kulusevski ought to take his place.
The skilled Swedish worldwide has spent a lot of his time at Spurs enjoying on the wing, however just lately, Postecoglou has taken to beginning him in midfield, and as most followers will attest, that’s the place he does his finest work.
For instance, you solely should look again ultimately night time’s recreation to see the impression he can have, as he got here on late for the injured Werner and floated between midfield and the extensive positions.
In simply 16 minutes on the pitch, he created one huge probability, supplied one help, took a shot on course and had a shot blocked, took 15 touches, and obtained an 8/10 ranking from Kipatrick.
Furthermore, regardless of being on the dropping facet within the North London Derby, the previous Juventus ace was one of many few shining lights for the group in midfield, for which he was given a 7/10 by soccer.london’s Alasdair Gold.
Lastly, James Maddison will doubtless are available in for the underwhelming Pape Matar Sarr on Saturday, so there are few different offensively-minded choices for the supervisor to choose from.
Finally, final night time was a dreadful day on the workplace for Spurs, and whereas Bergvall actually wasn’t the worst participant on the pitch, he’s nonetheless not prepared to start out a Premier League recreation, no much less one towards a group who virtually drew on the Etihad final weekend. Due to this fact, Postecoglou ought to drop the teenager again to the bench on Saturday and begin Kulusevski in his place, as he will be much more influential in huge video games.
