Dejan Kulusevski's 'huge' Lucas Bergvall claim and what he wasn't happy about in Tottenham defeat

Dejan Kulusevski believes Lucas Bergvall has the potential to be "huge" for the Swedish national team. After catching the eye for Tottenham since linking up with the squad for the first time earlier this summer, the 18-year-old has been given the nod for his country's upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures.

Firstly travelling to Baku to take on Azerbaijan on Thursday, Sweden then host Estonia in Stockholm on Sunday evening. Bergvall already has one senior cap for his country, which came in the middle of January in a friendly against Estonia in Greece.

The team for that game was mainly made up of players from the Allsvenskan league with Europe's top leagues all in full swing at that point just after the turn of the year. That means that this latest round of games will get to see Bergvall joins forces with players such as Kulusevski, Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres in the national side for the very first time.

Kulusevski believes that his Tottenham teammate thoroughly deserves to be with the senior national team and that he can already help Jon Dahl Tomasson's side as soon as he joins up with the rest of the squad.

"Yeah absolutely. He has been fantastic," the Stockholm-born player told football.london when it was put to him that Bergvall deservedly got the call-up. "He has come in and he's doing really good every day, training hard and learning from the other players. I'm happy for him and I'm happy that I can bring him to the national team with me."

On just how important Bergvall can be for Sweden in the future, he said: "Huge. He's very young but I think he can help us already from tomorrow [Monday], so I'm happy that he's going to be there. Of course he's young but we'll be there to guide him and help him."

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Bergvall was introduced for the final eight minutes of Tottenham's Premier League encounter against Newcastle United but he unfortunately couldn't help Spurs register a point following a 2-1 defeat. Losing heavily on their previous two visits to St. James' Park, Ange Postecoglou's men were the better team for the majority of the contest and really should have left Tyneside with points in the bag.

"Very disappointed with the result," said Kulusevski. "I thought the performance was good first half and even better in the second half, so very disappointed not to win the game but I think the team did very well and we're on the right move.

"I thought we played really well and killed their energy in the arena and we were very calm with the ball, everyone showed that they wanted the ball. So it was a big test for us and I think we did very good and I think it is the right way. We're on the right road to what we want to become."

One thing Tottenham did have in the match were chances on goal to win the game. Had Postecoglou had one of Dominic Solanke or Richarlison available for selection then just having that natural striker in the team could have made all the difference.

"Absolutely. We had [chances] but I think the last passes were not perfect in too many circumstances or maybe a couple of shots that got blocked," said Kulusevski. "Of course we can be more dangerous."

The absence of Solanke and Richarlison meant that Kulusevski started the game playing up front after catching the eye in the position during pre-season. Moving back into midfield at the start of the second half with Brennan Johnson introduced in place of Pape Matar Sarr who was on a yellow card, the Swede has stated that he wasn't happy that he couldn't help his team collect all three points.

"It was different, of course it's different," said the 24-year-old on his striker role. "The second half I went back to the midfield where I had much more space and we dominated the game. It was a really good game and I feel very good but I'm not happy I couldn't win the game but we move on and head up."

One thing that was noticeable during the match was Tottenham's set-piece routines. Nick Pope looked set to be called into action on 30 minutes only for Radu Dragusin to inadvertently block Pedro Porro's shot after James Maddison and Son Heung-min had combined from a corner to tee him up.

New assistant coach Nick Montgomery is having a big say on the team's set-pieces - both attacking and defending - and it is something that could really pay off for Tottenham if their hard work on the training pitch at Hotspur Way results in a goal.

"We do it in training, everything we can to score," said the former Parma player. "It was a good thing and almost a goal. We've got to keep working on everything and enjoy."

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