Tottenham: Ange Postecoglou move suggests different future for Lucas Bergvall | OneFootball

Teenager is being used at the base of the Spurs midfield rather than as an attacking playmaker

Lucas Bergvall's first Premier League start for Tottenham could scarcely have been better timed.

The 18-year-old's dad, Andreas, was in the UK and at St. Mary's to watch the midfielder produce a composed display in the 5-0 thrashing of Southampton, which spelled the end of Russell Martin's tenure as Saints head coach but felt like the true start of Bergvall's time at Spurs.

"It felt unbelievable, amazing. We had a really good first half, scored a goal and just kept going. Some things to work on second half but still we closed the game and won 5-0."

Bergvall produced a composed display in Sunday’s 5-0 thrashing of Southampton

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Before Sunday, the summer signing from Swedish club Djurgardens had been restricted to 74 minutes in the top-flight across a series of uneventful cameos and struggled to make an impression in the Europa League.

He was the fall-guy when centre-half Radu Dragusin was sent off in Spurs' opening European game against Qarabag, hooked after 12 minutes to accommodate a replacement defender, and appeared overawed in the cauldron of Galatasaray's Rams Park, as Spurs fell to a 3-2 defeat last month.

Bergvall has steadily improved since his rough night in Istanbul, however, looked assured in a succession of tidy cameos against Bournemouth, Chelsea and Rangers before suspensions to Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur opened the door for him to start against Saints.

When Bergvall agreed to join Spurs ahead of Barcelona, to much fanfare over the summer, it was assumed he would be competition for James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr as one of Postecoglou's hard-running attacking No8s but his recent appearances have been in a deeper role.

Bergvall filled in at No6, the position usually occupied by Bentancur or Bissouma on the south coast, suggesting his future at Spurs may be at the base of midfield, rather than as an attacking playmaker.

"I've been playing No6 for the last few weeks," Bergvall said. "The games against Bournemouth, Chelsea and Rangers as well. I like to play No6 in this type of system but in the future we'll see.

Bergvall filled in at No6 on the south coast

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"I'm learning every day from the best players: Sonny, Deki, Madders," he added. "I'm learning from them and just keep going in training, giving what I can every time I come on."

Bentancur remains banned for the visits of Manchester United and Liverpool to north London this week after Spurs lost an appeal to commute his seven-match suspension, but Bissouma is likely to return to the XI for Thursday's crunch Carabao Cup quarter-final against Rubem Amorim's side.

Bissouma has continued to struggle for consistency this season, though, and Bergvall should sense further opportunities at No6 in the second half of the campaign - at least more so than in advanced midfield, where his compatriot Dejan Kulusevski is now jostling with Maddison and Sarr for two places.

Such was the poverty of Southampton's performance in the first half, it was difficult to read too much into anything about Tottenham's clinical display at the weekend, including a positive run out for Bergvall.

The teenager, though, appears to have a big future ahead of him, and will hope to offer Spurs and Postecoglou more depth at holding midfield going forward.