There wasn’t much to be concerned about coming out of Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-0 away friendly win over QPR today at Loftus Road. Spurs handled a step up in competition compared to Wednesday’s match against Hearts and looked decent with significant rotation against a Championship side. All in all, a good day’s work before Spurs fly out to Asia next week for their international tour.
But there was one scary moment. Tottenham new boy Lucas Bergvall was subbed off midway through the first half after an incident on a corner kick. It’s not clear exactly what happened but he signaled to the bench to be evaluated and was quickly subbed off for Dejan Kulusevski before heading straight down the tunnel.
Not great! Thankfully, Ange Postecoglou was asked about his status after the match in his post-match interview with the club and said that it’s probably nothing to worry about.
“He’s just a bit sore. I don’t think it’s anything significant. Again, for him, and Archie, this is all new to them, the way we train, we have to look after them. But, as I said, I don’t think it’s anything significant.
Bergvall’s substitution was notable in that he had been playing quite well as a box-to-box 8 in this match, and Spurs immediately looked more pedestrian as soon as he went off. Bergvall looked to be taking more of a passing role compared to against Hearts when he played a little higher up the field, but what has come through in both of his preseason performances thus far is his excellent football IQ and his ability to utilize and take advantage of space. It’s early days and he’s a young player, but based on what I’ve seen so far he might already be one of Tottenham’s best central midfielders.
Spurs didn’t hit the heights against QPR as they did against Hearts in Edinburgh, but Postecoglou said he was pleased with the performance, acknowledging that the players had a grueling week.
“It was ok. They’ve had a hard week training and game travel so I felt for the boys really. We knew we’d bit a little bit leggy today. I still thought we played some good stuff. Probably weren’t as clinical in front of goal as we were in midweek. That’s probably because like I said we’ve had a hard week. We created some good chances, but overall not too bad and again everyone got through it so that’s the main thing.”
Spurs will likely get a day off before preparing for their tour to Japan and South Korea next week. Their next friendly is against Vissel Kobe at the Japan National Stadium in Tokyo next Saturday, July 27.