Can FPL bosses expect more attacking returns from Spurs winger Steven Bergwijn?

Steven Bergwijn (£7.5m) is off and running already in Fantasy Premier League, having scored Tottenham Hotspur’s opening goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Manchester City.

Bergwijn’s double-digit haul on his debut has already put him on the FPL radar, with the Dutch winger the third-most-popular transfer target among Fantasy midfielders in the run-up to Gameweek 26.

The Netherlands international was signed by Spurs only last week, joining the Lilywhites from PSV Eindhoven in a reported £27m deal.

Bergwijn has penned a four-and-a-half-year contract with Jose Mourinho’s side and it was perhaps telling that his new manager threw him straight into the starting XI against Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions on Sunday.

Mourinho said of Bergwijn’s display after full-time:

It was a debut goal that was the icing on the cake of a very good performance. Independent of the goal I would say his performance was very good, very solid. Very mature.

We worked hard during the week. He came to us Tuesday so he had a complete week to work and to try as fast as possible to understand what we wanted from him.

So very solid performance against such a difficult opponent like Kyle Walker, but then he was clever enough to appear also in other zones and try to create some problems for City.

So very, very good performance. Also defensively very aware of his position, defending zonal, covering spaces. Very, very good and then, of course, the goal is a great goal. It’s so important for us.

Is Bergwijn a viable cheaper alternative to Son Heung-min (£10.0m) then or indeed an appealing midfield option in his own right?

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The History and Statistics

Born in October 1997, Bergwijn was on the books of Ajax as a youth before switching allegiances to PSV in 2011.

The winger progressed to the club’s under-19 side before making his debut for Jong PSV (the Dutch giants’ reserve team) at the age of 16 in August 2014.

Bergwijn went on to make 31 appearances for Jong PSV in Eerste Divisie (the Dutch second tier), scoring on 14 occasions and claiming six assists.

The then-teenage attacker caught the eye of PSV head coach Philip Cocu during his spell with the reserves, intermittently appearing for the senior team in both the Eredivisie and UEFA Champions League until his breakthrough season arrived in 2016/17.

Appearing mostly as a substitute in that campaign, Bergwijn established himself as a first-team regular in 2017/18 and was directly involved in 19 of his side’s league goals.

An explosive 2018/19 saw him register 14 goals and 12 assists in 33 Eredivisie appearances, with the new Spurs signing coming up against his future employers at Wembley in a Champions League group stage match in November 2018.

Bergwijn had already plundered 15 attacking returns in 16 top-flight starts for PSV this season before his move to north London, departing Eindhoven having scored 29 goals and registered 35 assists in 112 Eredivisie games.

The full breakdown is as follows:

Having represented the Netherlands at every age level from under-17s upwards, Bergwijn made his debut for the national side in October 2018 and has gone on to feature for his country on nine occasions (without scoring).

The Comparisons: 2019/20