Tottenham Hotspur have been warned that one of their key ‘strengths could be a fragility’ moving forwards by Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick.
Spurs beat Villarreal 1-0 on their return to the Champions League on Tuesday night in front of a reduced Tottenham Hotspur Stadium crowd, with Lucas Bergvall capitalising on an error by goalkeeper Luiz Junior to score the only goal in the clash.
Manchester United icon Rooney and former Red Devils and Spurs ace Carrick worked as pundits for coverage of the European tie alongside ex-Tottenham striker Dimitar Berbatov.
All three had plenty of praise for 19-year-old match winner Bergvall – but they couldn’t help but warm that him and Pape Sarr’s positioning in games could cost Spurs in the future.
Tottenham risk leaving Rodrigo Bentancur, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven exposed
With Spurs protecting their narrow lead at half-time, Rooney waxed lyrical on the young midfielder at half-time on Amazon Prime Sport, saying: “It was the tale of the first half Bergvall and Sarr making those forward runs. They’ve looked really dangerous and it looks like something they’ve certainly worked on the last couple of days.”
He continued: “That threat is always keeping the Villarreal players on their toes.”
Carrick looked at the flip side of that tactic, though, replying : “They’ve been really aggressive with Sarr and Bergvall, anytime they play it short into Bentancur, Villarreal have been trying to pounce, really trying to jump on top of them and race from that position. I think the positivity of the strength could be a fragility and a weakness. You can see the two midfielders pushing up looking to run in behind, there’s an awful lot of space for [Rodrigo] Bentancur in the middle of the pitch to try to manage.”
The ex-Middlesbrough boss continued: “They’ve had success with it going forwards, but it’s without the ball. There’s a lot of pressure on the centre backs and Bentancur in that triangle. If they don’t win that first ball, runners are off. There’s a lot of space for Villarreal to penetrate through.”
Tottenham survived late pressure from Villarreal to secure all three points in the end, despite shouts of a Xavi Simons red card, and Bergvall was rewarded for his contribution in his Champions League bow.
Lucas Bergvall picks up Player of The Match award in ‘dream’ Champions League debut
As well as scoring the only goal in the tie, the Sweden international managed five progressive carries, three progressive passes and received four progressive passes, demonstrating the attacking outlet he was providing Spurs with on Tuesday.
Asked how much he enjoyed playing in the competition for the first time, he said: “It’s been a dream since I was a young kid to play here, and in front of the supporters at home.
“A win couldn’t be better.”
Spurs travel to Bodo/Glimt in their next European clash.
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