Postecoglou discusses Lucas Bergvall sacrifice in Spurs win over Qarabag
Lucas Bergvall was given the nod in the starting lineup for the Europa League opener against Qarabag, but he was substituted after just 12 minutes as Ange Postecoglou had to make a big tactical shift due to his team picking up a red card.
Postecoglou promises Bergvall he will get more chances
Many fans have been excited to see Lucas Bergvall get more minutes under his belt at Spurs, and the first Europa League game of the season against Qarabag provided the perfect opportunity to give the Swedish star a chance.
Chosen to start the game by Ange Postecoglou, Bergvall only managed to get 12 minutes to his name before he was hooked off to be replaced by Destiny Udogie.
The reason being, Radu Dragusin got himself sent off after seven minutes for a clumsy foul, and Spurs needed to mix things up to limit the impact of going down to 10-men.
Speaking to TNT Sports (via Yahoo), Postecoglou explained this decision and reassured a disappointed Bergvall that he will get his chance again soon.
He said: “That’s football. He’s 18, he’ll get plenty more games. It’s a decision we had to make. We needed an extra midfielder in there to make sure we had cover, and we needed to bring a left-back on in Destiny.
“Just an adjustment we needed to make, nothing on Lucas. He’ll get plenty of opportunities.”
Spurs started slow against Qarabag
Discussing the sending-off and the reasons behind his team’s sloppy start to the game, Postecoglou theorised the delayed kick-off could have contributed.
He told Football.London: “It was just a consequence of us starting the game really slowly. It was just not a great start for us. We were really passive with our passing. Whether it was the delay to the game or whatever, but it’s no excuse.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot and unfortunately Radu and Lucas paid the ultimate price for it. But as a team, we just didn’t start the game in the way we wanted to and the way we needed to and made the game challenging for us. The response was great, absolutely, but disappointed we had to be in that position.”
Gutted for Bergvall
Seeing Bergvall on the bench after he was substituted was heartbreaking, as he must have been so excited and hungry to make an impact in that game, and I’ve no doubt he would have flourished against Qarabag had he managed to play for longer.
As Ange says, there is a long season ahead, and Bergvall is absolutely going to make an impact very soon. He’s got all the attributes needed to shine in this team, and hopefully, this disappointment will fuel his desire to do something special in his next game.
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