Tottenham Hotspur ran riot against an out-of-sorts Manchester United team on Sunday afternoon at Old Trafford, easing past Erik ten Hag’s men, but manager Ange Postecoglou was left fuming with teenager Lucas Bergvall for two incidents late on in the match.
An exceptional run from Micky Van de Ven saw Brennan Johnson tap home for the travelling team inside the first five minutes before Bruno Fernandes was given his marching orders for a reckless tackle on James Maddison on the stroke of half-time. Spurs capitalised on their man advantage in the second period, with a smart finish from Dejan Kulusesvski and a poacher’s effort from Dominic Solanke sealing an emphatic 3-0 victory at the Theatre of Dreams.
Despite the convincing nature of his team’s performance, Postecoglou was left ruing several missed opportunities to make the goal deficit greater, with substitute Bergvall guilty of two particularly wasteful moments in the latter stages of the encounter.
Postecoglou ‘Furious’ With Bergvall
The Swede was wasteful in the final third
With Tottenham ending the game having taken 24 shots, and having accumulated 4.59 expected goals, there were certainly chances on offer for the Lillywhites to embarrass United by winning by a much greater margin than they ultimately did. Postecoglou was reportedly disappointed with his side’s inability to batter this United team and make the scoreline even more comfortable.
The Aussie introduced 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall in the 77th minute, replacing goalscorer Johnson, for what was his seventh appearance in a Spurs shirt. There had been calls for the Swedish starlet to start the game ahead of Maddison in the build-up, but ultimately, the youngster may have demonstrated why he’s not being granted regular minutes as of yet.
According to Football.London, Postecoglou bellowed ‘Lucas’ across the pitch on two separate occasions in the closing stages at Old Trafford. In the first incident, Bergvall opted to shoot from distance rather than finding a pass to his left to an unmarked Mikey Moore, who would’ve had an excellent opportunity to score.
“Even Postecoglou was raging twice with 18-year-old Lucas Bergvall in the final 10 minutes, first for taking a shot from distance rather than passing the ball to the unmarked Mikey Moore and then later when the Swede attempted to find his fellow teenager rather than playing the ball to the right to two unmarked team-mates. The Australian bellowed ‘Lucas’ across the pitch and angrily showed him where the ball should have gone.”
Attempting to atone for not feeding Moore, Bergvall then found his fellow teenager when there were better options available on his right, with two unmarked teammates queuing up to tuck the ball home. Postecoglou’s anguish at Bergvall’s decision-making certainly reflects a coach eager for his team to consistently put their opponents to the sword.
The Sweden international will have to improve this aspect of his game if he wants to begin starting games regularly for Tottenham.
