Lucas Bergvall has made quite the impression in his debut season for Tottenham. Always going to need time to adapt to the pace and intensity of the Premier League, the Swedish star has been a regular in Ange Postecoglou's team since the beginning of December.
Bergvall has delivered some huge displays since then, including his eye-catching performance against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup where he scored the winner, and last month Pep Guardiola claimed the Spurs ace is "unstoppable" every time he is in possession of the ball and runs. Not only that, the 19-year-old now looks to have secured a place in Postecoglou's first-choice Tottenham XI and his importance to the side has been clear for all to see in recent months.
Bergvall has also wowed those watching on back in his homeland of Sweden, including former Tottenham defender Erik Edman. The former full-back has heaped praise on his fellow countryman and likened his adaptation to the Premier League to Freddie Ljungberg after his Arsenal transfer back in 1998.
Edman also believes Bergvall is similar to his former Tottenham teammate Michael Carrick, who went on to win the Champions League with Manchester United two years on from his 2006 Spurs departure.
“If I look back 30 years, there is one player who has gone from the Swedish league straight into the Premier League and made an impact, and that’s Freddie Ljungberg," the Swede told Tottenham's official website. "Normally speaking, every Swedish player needs to take another step, maybe going to the Championship, maybe another league in another country, to get used to the bigger stage, a higher tempo, all those types of things, but Lucas has adapted phenomenally well.
"I thought he might even need to go on loan for a period to adapt to the English game, but he’s taken his opportunity. He’s growing physically and he loves the physical side of the game.
"Lucas reminds me a little of a young Michael Carrick, who I played with that season at Spurs in 2004/05. What a player, played off both feet, never lost the ball, always evaded pressure. Lucas is an intelligent footballer. He’s adapted from Sweden to the Premier League, absorbed all the information, and that’s the sign of a talented player, technically and mentally.
"In Sweden, we’ve been looking for a top-class midfielder. We’ve had great strikers like Zlatan (Ibrahimovic), Henrik (Larsson), those guys, now we have Kulusevski, Isak, Gyökeres, but we’ve been lacking a top-class, holding midfielder. I don’t know if fans will remember a midfielder called Jonas Thern, he had some really great years at Benfica, Napoli, Roma, that calibre of player. Maybe, in a year or two, he could be at that level.
"It will be interesting when Spurs play Eintracht Frankfurt – they have a player called Hugo Larsson, another young Swedish player, two years older than Lucas, they are probably fighting for the same spot in the Swedish national team at the moment. It will be interesting to see how that develops, but I have to say, Lucas looks the real deal."
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