Spurs star had his worst game all season for Frank

Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have often had some classic goal-laden matches in past Premier League seasons.

Last season saw the Reds beat Tottenham 5-1 on their way to lifting the Premier League title, while the north London side will hold a 2017 encounter close to their hearts, as Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son’s side snatched a 4-1 win over their rivals on Saturday night.

On this occasion, it was a memorable one for Spurs for all the wrong reasons, as two red cards and a brace in the win over Guglielmo Vicario continued Arne Slott’s mini-comeback in a 2-1 defeat.

Thomas Frank will be furious at the final whistle at the actions of Xavi Simons, with the disappointing summer signing receiving an early red card in the first half, helping Liverpool on their way to a confidence-boosting three points. However, there were others who were poor performers who let the team down badly.

Tottenham main beats Liverpool

Indeed, although Simons’ moment of reckless madness with Virgil van Dijk undoubtedly helped the visiting Reds, it’s not always easy playing against ten men.

Unfortunately, though, Spurs rolled over and allowed Liverpool to take the win, with Frank’s men up front always lacking any cutting edge, apart from Richarlison scoring a late consolation goal.

In particular, Mohamed Kuddous failed to spark life during a memorable 58-minute spell, with the former West Ham United striker scoring just one effort past Alisson. Furthermore, even though he only touched the ball 31 times, the 20th player who hit and missed the ball would still give up the ball 11 times.

Randall Kolo Mwani would also frustrate Frank when he failed to find the back of the net from all four of his efforts. Furthermore, the former Brentford boss will also be furious at Cristian Romero’s late dismissal, after the South American defender was also caught in Alexander Isak’s opener, following a poor attempted forward pass.

TalkSPORT pundit Alex Crook even described Romero as an “absolute liability” in the end, with the 27-year-old no doubt fearing he would have been sent off by his manager, anyway, if the red card had never happened.

However, there is one underperforming player who has not been mentioned yet, and his performance levels have already dropped against the visitors to the Slot, with this being his worst game of the season, so far, under Frank.

The Tottenham star who played his worst game under Frank

No one wearing a white Tottenham shirt after a 2-1 loss could walk away with their head held high, apart from Richarlison, who perhaps injected some energy into proceedings late on.

Lukas Bergvall certainly wasn’t proud of his efforts, as the midfielder – who was hailed as ‘a class above the rest’ earlier in the month against Newcastle United by one of the Spurs podcast hosts – faded into the background the longer the game went on, his position on the pitch not helped at all by Simmons’ hasty dismissal.

Having had two shots on goal for Newcastle, along with completing 100% of all his dribbles, Bergvall was able to be a driving force in the middle that helped Spurs on their way to taking a share of the points on Tyneside.

In stark contrast, facing Slot’s rejuvenated men, the young Swede largely retreated into his shell when the going got tough, with no tackles won, no successful dribbles completed, and only 15 accurate passes registered. To make matters worse, he also failed to put a shot past Alisson, leading to his coach replacing him in the 71st minute.

It’s a worrying decline for a star once hailed as “Modric-like” by The Athletic’s JJ Ball for his elegant calm on the ball, with Bergvall looking unlikely at all to add to his promising contributions with three Premier League goals so far this season.

This poor performance could see the 19-year-old ruled out of some of the games that will follow in a busy winter fixture list, as it was his worst performance of the season compared to the rest of his performances that led to him receiving the aforementioned praise.

It will be interesting to see what Tottenham’s next line-up looks like before the tough contests that follow against Crystal Palace and Brentford, with the already under pressure Frank needing to make his team selections to save his own skin.

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