It was a thunderous performance but without anything to show for it, as Ange Postecoglou’s side showed their strength and resilience against Manchester City at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the North Londoners’ 1-0 defeat last weekend.

A resilient performance amounting to nothing

The Lilywhites were coming into the game behind three consecutive wins in the English top tier, and while the Australian head coach aimed to extend the winning streak, it was the clinicality in front of goal that was the aggregation of all Tottenham problems yet again as they struggled to convert their chances after an early goal from Erling Haaland, which ended up being the decisive one for the visitors to take all three points.

But some positives to take… starting with Bergvall

And while it ended up being a disappointing result for the North Londoners, there were a lot of positives to take out from the game. One of those was that impressive outing by Lucas Bergvall, with the teenager earning praise from Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. The former Barcelona manager described the Swedish talent as “unstoppable” when he is carrying the ball forward.

Speaking in his press conference after the game, Guardiola went on to speak about how the Lilywhites deploy a complement of high intensity and sharp attacking style at N17 and then come in with the composure and control in midfield with the likes of Bergvall.

Guardiola said (via. Express):

“The pace of this team? Pfft, it is difficult. Maybe Liverpool [are better], but Bergvall, every time he has the ball and run, unstoppable.

Pep spoke about how the players in the roster have the physicality and pace and spoke about how the hosts remained highly competitive despite missing key players like Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.

He continued:

“Spence and Pedro Porro, Udogie, [Dejan] Kulusevski, Son [Heung-min], an incredible physical team with a clear idea to play.

“They play really good and they play without [Cristian] Romero and [Micky] Van de Ven, two of maybe the best central defenders in the league. The game, it was open second half because we didn’t close the first.”

Bergvall enjoyed a strong performance

Bergvall had a good game against City. He had 73 touches and completed 47 of 54 attempted passes (achieving an impressive accuracy rate of 87%). The Swede went on to successfully deliver three of four long balls, showing his ability to fit into Postecoglou’s all-out attacking mindset playing style. On the defensive end of things, Bergvall went on to have seven key actions, made four ball recoveries, and won eight duels, showing the capacity to work hard from the middle of the park.

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Tottenham supporters do know that Bergwijn is a highly acclaimed talent, and the fact that he does possess raw qualities, now it is about developing that potential into match-winning talent.