Player Watch: Dejan Kulusevski

[Haddock]

The beauty of having squad depth is that all players don’t have to hit form at the same time. Deki deserves to start the right now.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

The beauty of having squad depth is that all players don’t have to hit form at the same time. Deki deserves to start the right now.

Sure but he should start in the middle not RW. Fair play yo him though he’s certainly had a strong pre season.

 

[daryl]

I think when ppl analyse Deki he gets a rough ride tbh. As a 10 and RW he’s very good. As a RW, playing alongside Kane a guys who can drop in and turn it round the corner he was very effective… also when Kane was in the box for a cut back and whipped cross to the back Kulu was good.
its no surprise that he struggles wide when there is no Physical attacking presence in the box ie Son, as hes not always gonn speed a full back and cut across from byline.

when Richy played - Kulu was good and the example is the forest away game- 1 goal and his be crossing to head assist.

Solanke coming in will elevate Kulu games on RW back to those in season 1

Yeah I think your bang on the money there, something I hadn’t really thought of myself, maybe because it seemed we were prioritising other positions. But how many goals would a proper striker have got in our team last season. Especially one that was fit for every game. How many of those draws could we have turned into wins, and other games where we should have been out of sight after having all of the game. Let’s face it, even richy isn’t an out and out striker

 

[S17PUR]

I think he's had a strong preseason in general, but for me his best performances were actually as a forward. I still think he looks slightly out of place as an 8 in this system, but he's not quick enough or at least doesn't beat his man enough to be a typical Ange winger either.

I feel for him as he's got incredible talent, far more than the likes of Johnson or Werner, but he's not a perfect fit for any of the roles in our system. Maybe he can adapt to the 8 role as he's still relatively young and obviously an intelligent footballer but personally I wouldn't select him over Maddison or Bergvall as an 8 right now. I'd probably start him RW though based on form.

 

[Mellow Man Ace]

No suprise and I shot down people who said Deki will be a striker options for us this season.

If you just look at those 2 goals as the measure that’s ignoring all the other things strikers do which help the team overall.

I hope Deki becomes our De Bruyne in that 8/10 role, mabye even pushing Maddison to the bench at times or playing with him when we want to really go for it but as for strikers if we can keep Solanke and Richarlison fit as our main 2 striking options that’ll help us overall as we can then keep son LW and Deki can focus on becoming a super effective n.on8/10 for us.

Great post. I understand the sentiments but would rather see him become an effective 8 or 10.

 

[vegassd]

I think he's had a strong preseason in general, but for me his best performances were actually as a forward. I still think he looks slightly out of place as an 8 in this system, but he's not quick enough or at least doesn't beat his man enough to be a typical Ange winger either.

I feel for him as he's got incredible talent, far more than the likes of Johnson or Werner, but he's not a perfect fit for any of the roles in our system. Maybe he can adapt to the 8 role as he's still relatively young and obviously an intelligent footballer but personally I wouldn't select him over Maddison or Bergvall as an 8 right now. I'd probably start him RW though based on form.

I'm hoping he becomes a bit of a utility man for us this season - not really cementing a place in the starting XI but being amongst the first subs to come on when we start to make changes. If our "squad players" can be the likes of Deki, Johnson, Dragusin, Sarr etc. that puts us in great overall shape.

This does of course rely on us upgrading that RW position.

 

[blankom]

Staring Line up:
My Dream for Kulu et al

Of our two Backs; only Porro attacks. Udogie stays back covering the DC with Micky and Romero.

kulusevski to play in position between AM and RW with Porro providing the width

 

[Rosco1984]

He's been brilliant in pre season.... but that still doesn't mean he suits the system on the right he doesn't have the pace and always narrows the game in this system when the fullbacks play inside anyway. he should be the maddison rotation. I can't take another season of the whole system falling down because of one square peg in a round hole

 

[BorjeSpurs]

He's been brilliant in pre season.

Totally agree!

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

He's been brilliant in pre season.... but that still doesn't mean he suits the system on the right he doesn't have the pace and always narrows the game in this system when the fullbacks play inside anyway. he should be the maddison rotation. I can't take another season of the whole system falling down because of one square peg in a round hole

COMPLETELY agree.

 

[Cel]

He's been brilliant in pre season.... but that still doesn't mean he suits the system on the right he doesn't have the pace and always narrows the game in this system when the fullbacks play inside anyway. he should be the maddison rotation. I can't take another season of the whole system falling down because of one square peg in a round hole

Agree - He'd start for me over Maddison for the Leicester game after that pre-season. Having both him and Solanke to bounce the ball off, with Son/Johnson and Porro/Udogie running off him would work for me so much better.

 

[kitchen]

He's been brilliant in pre season.... but that still doesn't mean he suits the system on the right he doesn't have the pace and always narrows the game in this system when the fullbacks play inside anyway. he should be the maddison rotation. I can't take another season of the whole system falling down because of one square peg in a round hole

We could always play him inside and have Porro or spence provide the width... I'm sure there's some way to adjust without taking away what players are good at.

I'd personally start him ahead of Maddison currently as some of the posters above have said. But then Bergvall also looks so good. Nice problem for Ange to solve currently. I just hope he finds the right solution to the puzzle.

 

[gibbospurs]

Anyone have any idea why he played up top all preseason and scores most games to be dropped to the bench for the Rw position? Not even sure Solanke was needed up top with how he was playing. Then sign no new improved left or right wingers. He must be confused of his position in this team atm. Do we want shot of him in reality?

 

[Pochemon94]

Anyone have any idea why he played up top all preseason and scores most games to be dropped to the bench for the Rw position? Not even sure Solanke was needed up top with how he was playing. Then sign no new improved left or right wingers. He must be confused of his position in this team atm. Do we want shot of him in reality?

I think that going forward once we have that more destroyer style player, he knows that he will prob play alongside Maddison against teams like today that will sit in a low block and just try to counter. having two 10s can help us unlock teams playing with 6 players in the box.

 

[gibbospurs]

I think that going forward once we have that more destroyer style player, he knows that he will prob play alongside Maddison against teams like today that will sit in a low block and just try to counter. having two 10s can help us unlock teams playing with 6 players in the box.

Not sure what you’ve seen? But he played that role back end of last season and was terrible there. Striker or he’s gone for me. Offers nothing out wide. Too slow. And too slow in the middle for thinking, hopefully wrong.

 

[Pochemon94]

Not sure what you’ve seen? But he played that role back end of last season and was terrible there. Striker or he’s gone for me. Offers nothing out wide. Too slow. And too slow in the middle for thinking, hopefully wrong.

that's fair but this preseason he looked to have a real creativity about him albeit at striker but we don't have room for him with Solanke and Richy there.

We shall see, Lange still has lots to do.

 

[spurs mental]

Not sure what you’ve seen? But he played that role back end of last season and was terrible there. Striker or he’s gone for me. Offers nothing out wide. Too slow. And too slow in the middle for thinking, hopefully wrong.

You've clearly just made your mind up already about Kulu. But he should have started on the right last night, over Johnson who was utterly awful all night, after his good pre season form.

 

[ReadieSpur]

How Kulu doesn't start ahead of Johnson is crazy. He's such a vastly superior player.

I don't know what Ange is doing tbh

 

[S17PUR]

Not sure what you’ve seen? But he played that role back end of last season and was terrible there. Striker or he’s gone for me. Offers nothing out wide. Too slow. And too slow in the middle for thinking, hopefully wrong.

Everyone is disagreeing with you here, but whilst I don't necessarily agree that it's striker or nothing (he's still better from the right for me - certainly better than Johnson), I have to agree that I've pretty much never seen him play well for us in the 8/10 role.

Everyone is constantly saying we can bring him into the middle, and some were even suggesting he'd be better than Maddison there, but he doesn't move the ball quickly enough and doesn't seem to think quickly enough either. Maddison is vastly superior in that role - I wouldn't say I want him sold but if someone said we could sacrifice him to bring in Eze then that'd probably strengthen us overall.

 

[rabbikeane]

How Kulu doesn't start ahead of Johnson is crazy. He's such a vastly superior player.

I don't know what Ange is doing tbh

Kulu on the right ruin the intention of Ange's football. It has a negative impact on 3 other players in the system if he play right to cut inside and narrow the team.