Player Watch Player Watch: Dejan Kulusevski

Nick-TopSpursMan · Mar 30, 2024

worcestersauce said:
Plenty of people pointing out he keeps cutting in onto his left foot and some concluding he should therefore be brought inside more central.
So not one single solitary person seems to wonder if perhaps he ought to be tried ON THE LEFT WING!
Just putting it out there.

Left wing is literally the worst position he could play in attack.

He doesn’t have any pace so he wouldn’t be able to go outside his man at all. At least on the right he’s able to cut in for a passing combo and then shot or cutback. If he gets forced inside he is at least sent on to his stronger foot.

On the left he’d be constantly forced inside on to his weaker foot.

DannyNZ · Mar 30, 2024

Sp3akerboxxx said:
Contrary opinion: I thought he was unlucky to be subbed off.

Flipside is that Johnson did better.

I still think that both showed more than Werner.

Can’t agree with that Kulu was poor and his butchering the break lead to the break for their goal. Werner was always looking dangerous and had a key part in both goals. Kulu contributed nothing and doesn’t attack the far post like Johnson and Werner. A spell on the bench is overdue.

fishhhandaricecake · Mar 31, 2024

Joely said:
Agree. Think we have some crucial decisions to make this summer when it comes to our forwards.

Personally think if we do decide to make Werner's move permanent, we should look to move Solomon on as well as Gil and free up space for two forward players with real quality. That plus Johnson and think we are in a better position. If we want to push on, we need to be looking to be raise the bar in these positions.

However the two players we bring in absolutely have to have the right profile. They need to have to have the ability to cause panic in one on one situations and force teams into considering doubling up on them.

We are missing that 'x factor' in our forward line where we have a player or two where the opposition have to make special plans to deal with.

Kulusevski needs to operate centrally. He is a good player with a great engine but he just doesn't have that dynamic edge required to play wide in this system and can be managed out of the games relatively easily when out wide. With the amount of the ball he sees, the output doesn't match up currently.

Completely agree mate.

fishhhandaricecake · Mar 31, 2024

worcestersauce said:
Plenty of people pointing out he keeps cutting in onto his left foot and some concluding he should therefore be brought inside more central.
So not one single solitary person seems to wonder if perhaps he ought to be tried ON THE LEFT WING!
Just putting it out there.

Not enough pace to play LW mate he won’t be able to knock it round a man and whip it at all, benefit of him as a RW was the danger of him cutting inside which requires far less pace.

Kulu himself said he sees his future centrally, I think he could become KDB lite if he moves central.

BorjeSpurs · Mar 31, 2024

DannyNZ said:
Kulu contributed nothing

Would have had two assist in the first half if it wasn't for that Werner miss and two posts denying Son.

Seems like a little bit more than nothing to me?

Locotoro · Mar 31, 2024

Ange specifically said that he subbed Deki because he wasn't holding his width. He didn't say he played poorly but his willingness to come inside was congesting the final third.
Personally I think he tried to do things but Luton were well organised. Madders was marked out the first half and Luton were no mugs.

worcestersauce · Mar 31, 2024

fishhhandaricecake said:
Not enough pace to play LW mate he won’t be able to knock it round a man and whip it at all, benefit of him as a RW was the danger of him cutting inside which requires far less pace.

Kulu himself said he sees his future centrally, I think he could become KDB lite if he moves central.

I've seen him do it on the right, he tends to power past defenders rather than just kick it past them and run fast so I still think he could do the job on the left wing.
If he says he wants to play more centrally that's fair enough.

Tucker · Mar 31, 2024

BorjeSpurs said:
Would have had two assist in the first half if it wasn't for that Werner miss and two posts denying Son.

Seems like a little bit more than nothing to me?

This. He wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some people are making out. Johnson came on and changed the game, I think thats more down to the tactical differences in their games than effort or form.

fecka · Mar 31, 2024

Tucker said:
This. He wasn’t anywhere near as bad as some people are making out. Johnson came on and changed the game, I think thats more down to the tactical differences in their games than effort or form.

My take is that the truth is likely somewhere in the middle of these statements.

We were better when Johnson came on and tactically we became a bit more direct and faster without Deki on the wing.
On the flipside Deki regularly produces chances and as mentioned, he should have had at least one, if not two, assists.

Dejan is a terrific player, but it might also be the case that our general play under Ange suffers a bit when he's playing RW as the way he's asked to play exacerbates his weaknesses, and his strengths don't come into play often enough.

GutBucket · Mar 31, 2024

He creates plenty of chances even on right wing, but he slows us down and makes this particular set of tactics look worse. His future has to be in central areas where we still get his creativity, work rate and physicality but where his lack of pace won't matter. Very valuable player to have in any case.

spurs mental · Mar 31, 2024

DannyNZ said:
Can’t agree with that Kulu was poor and his butchering the break lead to the break for their goal.

This is irritating me and did so yesterday too in the match thread.

People blaming Kulu for their goal, yes it was a bad pass but there was bits of play far worse than that that followed.

- Son lost the ball softly and fell over.

- Bissouma jogged towards Townsend and then made the laziest shitty challenge on him , and then jogged after him as Townsend ran into the box.

- No defender engaged Barkley when he received the ball in 5 yards of space in our own box.

mil1lion · Mar 31, 2024

spurs mental said:
This is irritating me and did so yesterday too in the match thread.

People blaming Kulu for their goal, yes it was a bad pass but there was bits of play far worse than that that followed.

- Son lost the ball softly and fell over.

- Bissouma jogged towards Townsend and then made the laziest shitty challenge on him , and then jogged after him as Townsend ran into the box.

- No defender engaged Barkley when he received the ball in 5 yards of space in our own box.

I mean it was a loose pass in their third, it happens. The goal wasn't his fault at all. It was so poorly defended.

Gilzeanking · Mar 31, 2024

spurs mental said:
- Bissouma jogged towards Townsend and then made the laziest shitty challenge on him , and then jogged after him as Townsend ran into the box.

- No defender engaged Barkley when he received the ball in 5 yards of space in our own box.

We got good defenders, but so often there's space for the oppo as crosses/passes come in. Need to sort this imo.

Stamford · Mar 31, 2024

mil1lion said:
I mean it was a loose pass in their third, it happens. The goal wasn't his fault at all. It was so poorly defended.

The real question is why didnt he just cross the ball like Brennan does across the face of the goal. Seems strange that seems too be a big part of our tactical plan and that was a very clear moment to do it

Westmorlandspur · Mar 31, 2024

Locotoro said:
Ange specifically said that he subbed Deki because he wasn't holding his width. He didn't say he played poorly but his willingness to come inside was congesting the final third.
Personally I think he tried to do things but Luton were well organised. Madders was marked out the first half and Luton were no mugs.

When you watch the training vids they are constantly going wide and smashing the ball across without really looking. Ange has said it’s up to the other forwards to get on the end of it.
Johnson does it all the time. Problem with Deki is that if he is on the right he is never going to cross the ball right footed. His average position in the first half was in the centre of the pitch . Said last week that he sees his future in the middle , Maybe he is fed up playing wide which only became his position when he came to us. Interesting to see how it pans out.

adamsky · Mar 31, 2024

We seem to have knee jerk reactions to every game. Yes, Kulu didn’t play great yesterday and the game probably did suit a more direct traditional winger.

However, there have been plenty of games where Kulu has been the better option on the right, and his hold up play and intelligent use of ball is what we needed. I can remember the game recently where he was subbed off for Johnson and everyone complained that we lost our attacking impetus and Johnson kept losing it.

Having different options is what is necessary, Ange cannot always get it right from the start. What matters is he can react if it is not working and change the game if required.

dontcallme · Mar 31, 2024

adamsky said:
We seem to have knee jerk reactions to every game. Yes, Kulu didn’t play great yesterday and the game probably did suit a more direct traditional winger.

However, there have been plenty of games where Kulu has been the better option on the right, and his hold up play and intelligent use of ball is what we needed. I can remember the game recently where he was subbed off for Johnson and everyone complained that we lost our attacking impetus and Johnson kept losing it.

Having different options is what is necessary, Ange cannot always get it right from the start. What matters is he can recreate is working and change the game if required.

People have been discussing Kulu every week this season. It’s far from knee-jerk.

adamsky · Mar 31, 2024

dontcallme said:
People have been discussing Kulu every week this season. It’s far from knee-jerk.

There are plenty of times where he has played well and people say how important he is. My point is that he will play well some weeks and others not so well, so to say Ange’s system requires Johnson type wingers after a week where he wasn’t great is knee jerk.

dontcallme · Mar 31, 2024

adamsky said:
There are plenty of times where he has played well and people say how important he is. My point is that he will play well some weeks and others not so well, so to say Ange’s system requires Johnson type wingers after a week where he wasn’t great is knee jerk.

It’s not knee jerk because many posters have been saying the exact same thing all season.

Most people agree that he’s a good player and the discussion is mostly on how best to use him and if he can be used as a winger.

If the same points are discussed over a whole season, it isn’t knee jerk. It’s actually the opposite of that. It’s knee-stay in the same position.

mil1lion · Mar 31, 2024

Stamford said:
The real question is why didnt he just cross the ball like Brennan does across the face of the goal. Seems strange that seems too be a big part of our tactical plan and that was a very clear moment to do it

Was there anyone on for that ball? I seem to recall both Son and Werner were outside the box which is why he cuts the ball back albeit behind Son, Werner was alongside Son so there was no ball into the box

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