Player Watch Player Watch: Dejan Kulusevski

[THFC_SWE]

Agree he deserves all the praise he's getting but what surprises me is it's almost exclusively focussing on his on the ball work, but one of the things that's most impressed me about him is his off the ball work, cutting down passing lanes and holding up attacks down the opposition's left flank. He's very astute with his positioning (another similarity to Eriksen?).

I agree. But I'm not surprised. Dejan covers a lot of ground and has always been a hard worker When he was on loan at Parma, only Brozovic covered more ground than Dejan (in the whole league).

 

[hughy]

Had a chat with my wife last night after the game, I'm not allowed to call my second son Deki.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

You know what, fair fucking play. I said from watching him at Juve that he wasnt very good and wouldnt suit the prem. He is proving me wrong on both accounts and I am very happy about that. He has been very good so far.

Love this type of post.

Much like myself with Doherty. It's great to be able to hold your hands up & just acknowledge being a clueless **** ?‍

 

[danielneeds]

I’ve got to say that he’s better than I thought he would be. Settled in superbly and has got a lot to his game. The only question know is can he (along with the rest of the attack) find a way to hurt teams who sit back against us?

 

[Danny1]

Had a chat with my wife last night after the game, I'm not allowed to call my second son Deki.

Divorce her.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

He has been superb, what a talent.

 

[EireYid]

Love this type of post.

Much like myself with Doherty. It's great to be able to hold your hands up & just acknowledge being a clueless **** ?‍

The thing is, you can be right on both occassions.

Doherty wasn't any good before and wasn't playing to his potential and the criticism was warranted (maybe not to the extent that some people go). And now he seems to be turning it around and we're seeing the player we believed we bought and the praise is now warranted (but again not to extent where he's now a world beater).

 

[Joshua shepherd]

Love this type of post.

Much like myself with Doherty. It's great to be able to hold your hands up & just acknowledge being a clueless **** ?‍

To be fair with Doherty he'd shown nothing to suggest he could be a useful player at spurs for about 18 months. With DK it had been about 30 minutes, not sure why people were writing him off, especially as he actually looked decent in his first game against Brighton.

 

[Yantino]

Two good feet.
Strong.
Tall.
Young.
Skillful.
Good attitude.
Knows where the goal is.
Can pick a pass.
Can cross.

What’s not to like?

 

[hughy]

Divorce her.

Technically we're not even married yet so she had better start listening to my name requests if she wants this to work.

 

[WiganSpur]

I’ve got to say that he’s better than I thought he would be. Settled in superbly and has got a lot to his game. The only question know is can he (along with the rest of the attack) find a way to hurt teams who sit back against us?

I actually thought he did relatively well against Burnley which was that sort of game. He will be more useful than Lucas in those sorts of games because he's got a brain and a decent shot on him. He also works well with Doherty which will be important also as if he keeps up this form Doherty will end up with a lot of space on that side and if he's good at anything it's arriving and finishing.

 

[WiganSpur]

Agree he deserves all the praise he's getting but what surprises me is it's almost exclusively focussing on his on the ball work, but one of the things that's most impressed me about him is his off the ball work, cutting down passing lanes and holding up attacks down the opposition's left flank. He's very astute with his positioning (another similarity to Eriksen?).

I think he's much closer to Van der Vaart than Eriksen. Much more of an AM than a playmaker.

 

[mil1lion]

Sorry not sorry

View attachment 107026

No saves from either of then though. Disgrace!

 

[fletch82]

Two good feet.
Strong.
Tall.
Young.
Skillful.
Good attitude.
Knows where the goal is.
Can pick a pass.
Can cross.

What’s not to like?

Can't run 100 meters in 4 seconds .
Sack him ?

 

[popstar7]

Two good feet.
Strong.
Tall.
Young.
Skillful.
Good attitude.
Knows where the goal is.
Can pick a pass.
Can cross.

What’s not to like?

Ginger

 

[djhotspur]

He and Romero our best signings in many years.

and benta

 

[C0YS]

I mean more than that, he is technically a wonderful player. Keep in mind Juventus paid 40m for him. This isn't a functional yet limited player. Far from it, when Juve signed him he was considered the most exciting up and coming talent in the league, and won the young player of the season after only half a season. The main thing is to try and consistently get that talent out of him.

People are focusing on his height but it's not his physical attributes that made him such a talent. Rather his technical ones. I guess when you see a player in passing a lot of the times unless a player has a lot of pace blablabla it's hard to really fully see their qualities.

He is 21. If he fulfils his potential he could be destined right for the top. That is how highly his talent is thought of. Will he fulfil it? Probably not. But there are reasons to be excited about him.

He's a colossal talent and one of the most exciting prospects in world football. He hasn't, however, set the world alight at Juventus but at 21 remains a top top talent.

I maintain my original opinions. A few seasons where he wasn't given a chance in a Juve team that frankly didn't suit him never stopped him being one of the most highly thought of talents for his age group.

I thought when we signed him it could well be a bit of a coup and while plenty of time for this to go wrong this could well turn out to be out next Modric/Bale signing.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

Links up really well with Kane, Doherty and our midfield. His movement, positioning and decision making show a lot of intelligence for a 21 year old.

A goal/assist every 84.8 minutes in his first 5 appearances is a pretty explosive start for a young player joining the toughest league in the world. He's created even more than those stats portray (assisting the assist and creating good chances that teammates don't put away). This is exactly what we needed from our RWF, which Moura and Bergwijn unfortunately weren't able to deliver.

As I said in a 'Spurs Community Frontpage News' thread last week, he's contributing more than Diaz - despite being younger and cheaper - yet is getting far less media attention simply because he plays for us not Liverpool. PL signing of the January window for me so far.

 

[Snarfalicious]

Links up really well with Kane, Doherty and our midfield. His movement, positioning and decision making show a lot of intelligence for a 21 year old.

A goal/assist every 84.8 minutes in his first 5 appearances is a pretty explosive start for a young player joining the toughest league in the world. He's created even more than those stats portray (assisting the assist and creating good chances that teammates don't put away). This is exactly what we needed from our RWF, which Moura and Bergwijn unfortunately weren't able to deliver.

As I said in a 'Spurs Community Frontpage News' thread last week, he's contributing more than Diaz - despite being younger and cheaper - yet is getting far less media attention simply because he plays for us not Liverpool. PL signing of the January window for me so far.

I think what sets Diaz and Kulusevski apart is the no-look, 3 yard passes while looking at the crowd, to a teammate with no one around them that doesn’t disguise anything Diaz pulls off. That’s flair, baby!

 

[rossdapep]

Don't necessarily want to turn this into a pile on for Lucas, as he's certainly not the only one to blame for this and even Sonny is guilty of poor decisions in the final third but this is a great example of what having a player with high football IQ can change.



Lucas should be sliding Emerson in, whether or not he has no faith in him he decides to play a cross which is much much harder and doesn't pay off.

In this situation I would trust Kulusevski to make a much better decision.

Because Lucas is an instinctive player, it's a roll of the dice on whether he makes the correct call or executes it. Kulusevski will often make the right call and even if he doesn't execute it you will see what he was trying to do.