While the Lilywhites had to rely on those late heroics from Cristian Romero to come up with a point from St James’ Park, long before that overhead kick went past Aaron Ramsdale, it was Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall who was keeping the offensive side of things alive for Thomas Frank.
The 19-year-old started more in that #10 role, but there were sequences in the game where he was used in a more tweaked false 9 kind of role.
If we do look at his numbers, Bergvall did not score or assist. But he was yet rated at 7/10 by Futmob.
Bergvall played a more flase-9 / SS role vs Newcastle
Going into the game, Tottenham were still feeling the weight of that 2-1 loss against Fulham, which came on the back of a difficult week. Bregvall came in and offered calm touches, sharp runs and clever movement between the lines. This could be a new way that Frank could use him in this team, especially with Muani tagging along in those left channels to create that space for Bregvall to dip into upfront.
In the 77 minutes that he got under his belt, we saw Bergvall taking on a couple of shots which aggregated to 0.29 non-penalty xG. He had 29 touches, with five of them in the Newcastle box. Getting more into numbers, Bergvall completed 81 per cent of his passes while going 2/2 on his dribbles. He was also on the better side of ground duels 3/4 of the time. These are quite solid numbers, especially on a night when Thomas Frank’s men were struggling to string passes together for long spells.
If we speak about it on paper, Bergvall started as the advanced midfielder. But in the eye test you often saw him floating as centre-forward. And then Kolo Muani was frequently drifting wide or dropping into channels, which left Bergvall to go into those central lanes and take up spaces between Newcastle’s centre-backs like a classic false 9.
There was a sequence where he nearly produced the moment of the match with that outrageous back-flick from Mohammed Kudus’ low cross which only ended up clearing the bar. He arrived between the posts like a #9 but with the imagination of a #10.
Author Opinion
For Thomas Frank, this is an option that he can bank on more going into the festive period, given how good Muani is going into those left channels as well. We have seen a lot of #10s starting to do more of this in the modern game; a certain King from Fulham does it as well alongside Jimenez. But he uses the Mexican to bounce off into spaces, while Bergvall has a whole different manner of operating.
What do you make of Bergvall’s SS-esque role? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
