Player Watch Player Watch: Dejan Kulusevski

[Ron Burgundy]

I think he’s an attacking midfielder. He’s got plenty to offer, and he was an excellent signing.

That said, I sort of feel that if we’re looking for ways to take us up a level, finding a pair of wingers (one of them could be Johnson - fingers crossed) who can genuinely threaten, stretch defences and create in multiple different types of game…would be game changing.

Good player. But I think his maximum potential is playing more centrally, and likely deeper

 

[ARMASPUR]

Credit to him, he runs loads, try’s hard. But for the amount of times he gets the ball he doesn’t seem to do enough with it . I like him though and you forget how young he is so loads of time to improve

 

[delawarespur]

Funny thing is he’s usually excellent at getting to the byline and crossing/passing with his right foot. Dunno why he simply didn’t try that much today. Probably should’ve been an emphasis on getting more overlapping runners like for the own goal sooner when facing the 9 men.

 

[TheVoiceofReason]

Kulu is a bit underrated I feel. The guy is a battering ram that doesn’t stop scaring the life out of defenders. Not everything comes off but he keeps pushing until it eventually does.

 

[allatsea]

Kulu is a bit underrated I feel. The guy is a battering ram that doesn’t stop scaring the life out of defenders. Not everything comes off but he keeps pushing until it eventually does.

Felt a bit sorry for Robertson yesterday he couldn't get to grips with Kulu at all. Lovely stuff.

 

[coy-spurs1882]

iirc they needed at least 2 players or even 3 to stop Deki going down the flank

 

[Tucker]

Kulu is a bit underrated I feel. The guy is a battering ram that doesn’t stop scaring the life out of defenders. Not everything comes off but he keeps pushing until it eventually does.

He’s having a great season so far chipping in with assists and goals. As others have said they needed to double (sometimes triple) up on him just to stop him. Liverpool defended brilliantly in the low block yesterday, the frustrations we faced weren’t down to our players.

 

[adamsky]

The inverted fullbacks has definitely improved our overall play but it has an effect on the wide players. An overlap not only gives the forward a pass but it also creates space for the wide forward to exploit themselves. Some games it will work and others they can look a bit ineffective like yesterday. Am sure we would have tried Johnson yesterday had he been fit. Hopefully the players also learn to switch tactics when situation arises again.

 

[jurgen]

I thought Kulusevski was superb against eleven today, a consistent outlet and always carrying it forward and creating attacking situations.

None of the team seemed to react well to playing against ten, and then nine.

Without Kulusevski’s hold up play I think we’d find it much more tricky playing with Son up front as Maddison will be the only ‘sticky’ attacker. As you say vs 11 he had some immense moments of play getting us up the field.

Yes, we should probably want more decisive moments from him given how much of the ball he had, but with the amount of attention Pool were giving him it was also a little disappointing that others didn’t exploit that more.

 

[shoggy33]

There's a reason he's playing pretty much every second. Teams are having to put 2 or 3 players on him just to stop him at the moment.

 

[Whazam]

There's a reason he's playing pretty much every second. Teams are having to put 2 or 3 players on him just to stop him at the moment.

On two occasions they even went at him with three players when they were down to 9. (And frustratingly, he got no real support from our players on either of the occasions.)

 

[glacierSpurs]

If he can improve with some variations of play and quick releases of balls he can be unplayable and still underrated. I would really love that.

 

[Rout-Ledge]

He’s a great option but not undroppable. Needs to add more goals and assists to his game if he wants to avoid becoming the next Lamela.

 

[GutBucket]

Wouldn't mind him going central at times with Maddison going right but with Maddison dominating in his role maybe it's not a great idea yet. There are moments where we really could use better dribbling out wide but at least his work rate is 10/10.

 

[worcestersauce]

Both Deki and Solomon didn't attack the byline enough and both also needed someone to repeatedly make an underlap run to assist them but all of them didn't know what to do out there against eight outfield players.

What do you expect when you play a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left?

 

[west indie]

I think he’s an attacking midfielder. He’s got plenty to offer, and he was an excellent signing.

That said, I sort of feel that if we’re looking for ways to take us up a level, finding a pair of wingers (one of them could be Johnson - fingers crossed) who can genuinely threaten, stretch defences and create in multiple different types of game…would be game changing.

Good player. But I think his maximum potential is playing more centrally, and likely deeper

Totally agree Ron Burgundy, that Deki would be better as one of the 8's.

Having our wingers able to get to the byline whipping the ball low and fast across the penalty area, would make things alot harder for low block sides defenders facing their goal to deal with, yesterday against Liverpool, both wings kept on cutting inside which was frustrating against 10 and then 9 men.

 

[worcestersauce]

Totally agree Ron Burgundy, that Deki would be better as one of the 8's.

Having our wingers able to get to the byline whipping the ball low and fast across the penalty area, would make things alot harder for low block sides defenders facing their goal to deal with, yesterday against Liverpool, both wings kept on cutting inside which was frustrating against 10 and then 9 men.

Porro's last minute cross from the right was the first one in the game. It's a consequence of playing a left footer on the right and vice versa which brings other advantages but that is the downside. Perhaps we should treat it as a learning opportunity when playing banks of defenders try swapping from time to time and getting to the by line.

 

[tobi]

What do you expect when you play a left footer on the right and a right footer on the left?

They need to be instructed to mix it up a bit and attack the byline more than they currently do.

Based on the difference between the first and second half, it's pretty obvious that Deki was told at half time vs Man Utd and we got a goal from it.

 

[Haddock]

He’s a great option but not undroppable. Needs to add more goals and assists to his game if he wants to avoid becoming the next Lamela.

Absurd post.

 

[only1waddle]

Porro's last minute cross from the right was the first one in the game. It's a consequence of playing a left footer on the right and vice versa which brings other advantages but that is the downside. Perhaps we should treat it as a learning opportunity when playing banks of defenders try swapping from time to time and getting to the by line.

Yeah, that might be the time to play 3 CB's, or similar to Poch and have Sarr drop in to a 3 and push Porro/Udogie higher up, we'll definitely start to face more low blocks now so a plan B should be a high priority seeing as our initial plan B now has an ACL.