The Tottenham player no one is talking about after Kinsky, Bergvall and Spence Liverpool heroics

It's advantage Tottenham heading into the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final showdown against Liverpool at the beginning of February. Spurs will crucially take a one-goal lead to Anfield after Lucas Bergvall opened his Spurs account in style with a brilliant late strike that gave Alisson no chance.

The midfielder, who is growing in stature game by game, collected the man of the match award but a number of other Tottenham players more than made their case for the gong. On his debut for the club, Antonin Kinsky was outstanding in goal three days after joining the club in a £12.5million transfer from Slavia Prague.

Djed Spence also delivered a huge display at left-back, notably keeping Mohamed Salah rather quiet down Liverpool's right. Pedro Porro, Radu Dragusin and Archie Gray joined Spence with big performances at the back and Dominic Solanke worked as hard as ever for the team and added another goal contribution to his tally for the season.

One performance that perhaps went under the radar was the one Yves Bissouma produced in the middle of the pitch. In and out of the Tottenham team in recent weeks, the Mali international was given the nod by Ange Postecoglou as he joined Rodrigo Bentancur and Bergvall in midfield on an evening when James Maddison and Pape Matar Sarr missed out through suspension.

Bissouma was very impressive off the bench last Saturday against Newcastle United and he carried on from where he left off as he came face-to-face with Arne Slot's exciting Liverpool side. The Dutchman did make changes to his team but he continued with Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones as his midfield trio of choice after they started together a few days earlier at home to Manchester United.

A big task for Bissouma and Co. coming up against their Liverpool counterparts, Tottenham's No.8 delivered one of his best showings of the season as the north London club caused some big issues for the Reds. Spurs received a huge blow in the opening minutes of the contest as Bentancur exited the field on a stretcher following a nasty head injury, thus seeing Bissouma's importance in midfield increase as Dejan Kulusevski dropped back as Brennan Johnson was introduced in attack.

Spurs fans were probably fearing the worst when the 28-year-old picked up a yellow card in the 32nd minute but they needn't have worried as Bissouma remained calm in midfield and provided a base for those ahead of him to trouble Liverpool. The player was incredibly disciplined throughout, especially as he was one booking away from a red card, and he delivered a commanding performance against a very strong Liverpool midfield.

In terms of his numbers in the game (via FotMob), Bissouma recorded an 84% pass completion rate from his 45 passes, he made four passes into the final third, won three of his four tackles, made six interceptions, six clearances, four recoveries and one block. He also came out on top in four of his eight duels and he only committed the one foul in his pitch time.

Such a key figure in Postecoglou's Tottenham team in the opening three months of last season, Bissouma has struggled to recapture those levels and his form has frustratingly fluctuated to leave him in a position where he is no longer a guaranteed starter. His outing against Liverpool was so impressive and one that perhaps deserved more praise but, again, Bissouma needs to get back to finding that consistency on a weekly basis as he is such an asset when at the top of his game.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Postecoglou heaped praise on his team and admitted that he was "proud" after they got their rewards for their hard work.

"Yeah very proud," said the Australian. "Again, we had to deal with some adversity tonight. We started the game really well I thought. Then obviously we lose Rodrigo, and in the way it happened, it was quite distressing to see a team-mate go down in that manner. Again, we had to compose ourselves and deal with that and re-organise.

"Super proud of the players. I have been all along. It hasn't been through the want of trying that our results haven't been as good, it's certainly not been on them, it's just that we haven't been able to get the consistency to get the results that we need. Just proud that they feel good tonight, that they get the rewards of their hard work.

"Our fans as well, we've put them through a tough time, I thought they were outstanding tonight. We haven't achieved anything, but I think just that feeling of having a victory against a top opponent in a big game, really pleased for everyone."

Excellent in the 1-0 win over Liverpool, there could still be even more to come from Bissouma in what remains of the season as Tottenham look to finish the term as strong as possible amid their woes in recent months. Cup success will hopefully be a big part of the coming months, with Bissouma again set to be pivotal as Postecoglou's men look to lock in a Carabao Cup final place come March.

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