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Sweden international is reveling in his new position as Ange Postecoglou’s attack-minded ethos pays dividends against Man Utd
It is typical of Ange Postecoglou’s boldness that his response to questions being asked about how he has set Tottenham Hotspur up is to go even more attacking.
With doubts over his midfield in particular, the head coach has reacted by deploying two attacking ‘number eights’ – James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski – behind a lone holding player in Rodrigo Bentancur.
Maybe it would have been expected that under such pressure a coach would choose to be conservative and bring in another defensive-minded player such as Pape Sarr or Yves Bissouma. Not Postecoglou.
It has been a revelation with Kulusevski capitalising on his strong running as a winger to produce an extraordinarily dominant performance against Manchester United. Suddenly he has become the poster boy of Ange-ball.
“Spurs EASE clear!” Tidy from Kulusevski 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/2QijaLh9U5
And to think that when he arrived at Spurs, signed by Antonio Conte in January 2022, initially on loan from Juventus before a permanent £29.2 million deal was agreed, he was used conservatively. The fact is he does not quite have the searing speed to be effective out wide – and Postecoglou demands pace, having now signed five quick wingers – but has the power to succeed through midfield. And, crucially, he has the appetite to press and can tackle.
The broadcasters named Micky van de Ven as man-of-the-match and as well as the Tottenham defender played that was a surprise decision. It has been a long time since a midfielder like Kulusevski has simply ran over the opposition as he did to United.
In doing so the Swede created no fewer than nine chances, the most by a visiting player at Old Trafford since Opta began compiling such statistics in 2003. That is a commentary on how poor United were but think of all the world-class performers who have appeared at this stadium and not delivered so much creativity.
It is a work in progress for the 24-year-old who was deployed in the same role against Arsenal but struggled, losing 13 of his 18 duels and failing to make an impact. It was better against Brentford – with Maddison scoring in that home win – and even better here with Kulusevski claiming an accomplished goal which summed up his dynamic performance.
It came as Brennan Johnson burst down the right and after his cross took a heavy deflection, Kulusevski adjusted superbly to guide his volley past goalkeeper Andre Onana.
There can be no doubting the impact that Kulusevski can have. Now the former forward needs to find greater consistency because he has all the attributes to succeed in the Premier League and not least his running power, driving runs, directness and positivity. He appears perfect for Postecoglou.
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