Tottenham Hotspur had one of the worst midfields in the Premier League last season under Ange Postecoglou, but now under Thomas Frank, that group has been stabilized. The additions of Xavi Simons and Joao Palhinha this summer have been massive, as the duo looks set to be among the very best in their roles in the Premier League this season; Palhinha already is.
But there are young players coming over from last season who are set to be important under Frank. Archie Gray and Pape Matar Sarr are already making huge strides from what they were doing under Postecoglou.
The real key player to watch in midfield is Lucas Bergvall, though. He was a standout in his first season with Tottenham and has been important again this season. Bergvall needs to be a key player for Spurs going forward, just as he needs to be a key starter for his country, Sweden.
The Swedish national team just had a terrible October international break with poor result after poor result, and the teenage Tottenham star was a victim of that, including being subbed off controversially in the game against Kosovo.
Not you, Potter
That manager has now been fired, but Jon Dahl Tomasson's replacement as the Sweden national team coach may not be much of an upgrade, which will come to the chagrin of Bergvall.
According to a report from Fabrizio Romano, the Sweden national team is close to hiring Graham Potter as the manager, even though Potter was just swiftly fired by West Ham after embarrassing himself with the Hammers even more thoroughly than he did at Chelsea.
Potter has been one of the worst Premier League managers over the last three years, and he is hardly much of an upgrade on Tomasson. Bergvall having to work under Potter is not going to be a great deal for him, and he's unlikely to learn much that he can use to translate to Spurs from a guy who isn't even fit to manage the worst teams in the Premier League.
It's a blow for Spurs and Bergvall, because coaches of the ilk of Tomasson and Potter are also hard to trust when it comes to playing the best players and guiding young talent. Potter didn't even develop Brighton's players at the level of his successors, and he's looking more and more like a fraud who was simply propped up by a great scouting system that fed him the talent in Brighton.