Player Watch Player Watch: Dejan Kulusevski

[spurs9]

Come on guys he is up there with the best in the league in terms of chances created from open play. He is heavily underperforming his expected assists meaning the chances he has created hasn't been finished with regularity.

If we get a 1v1 dribbling winger on the left, Kulu can absolutely play RW in this system.

That doesn't take into account quality of chances, he is 3rd at the club in big chances created and would be 5th when calculated per 90.

He is only slightly underperforming his xA with a 3 xA compared to 2 assists.

 

[mil1lion]

He's good right central but not left central like against City. The issue is Maddison is left central and Sarr operates more on the right. So for balance Sarr and Maddison works well or Kulusevski and Maddison but the latter is more attacking. He's a great versatile option to have though. I just think against a packed defence it doesn't suit him as right forward.

 

[nedley]

My issue with him is that in this system I just don’t know what position he best suits. He isn’t good enough 1v1 and/or fast enough to be a WF and he isn’t instinctive enough and lacks vision to be a creative AM. He was certainly better when he came central second half and played one or two nice passes but he was sitting next to Maddison which opened up space for him.

There is no doubt he is lacking in confidence and he is still young so we certainly shouldn’t write him off. I just don’t know where his future lies in our current set up.

I think he's perfectly fine on the right against the bulk of opponents.

As long as we have an elite 1v1 winger on the left.

 

[muppetman]

He worries me. Drifts in and out of games and he’s obviously a high quality player but wondering if he maybe doesn’t fit the system?

Stats are good but the eye test is a little different. Hopefully Ange can work it out because he’s too good to be having so little impact on games.

 

[robotsonic]

Looks like he's having a bit of a spell of a lack of real belief in himself to me. Needs to find a place where he is comfortable making first time passes and keeping he pace up, because he has the ability to do that and be that player. Needs something to come off for him soon to give him a bit of self belief.

 

[Aleks]

just needs to let the ball go half a second quicker, either when it's a shot or a pass. He does all the hard stuff just the final bit misses.

 

[Wick3d]

No conviction. Would it kill him to use his right foot? Surely it isn't that bad...

 

[ajspurs]

I agree but I think a large reason for that is because he’s being asked to sit further wide as we don’t tend to play overlapping FB/WB. It naturally takes him further away from goal so when he does cut in it’s not one touch to get on the corner of the box it’s 3 or 4. Slows everything down and allows the defence to set up and block the shot/pass. Again if he was faster or better on the dribble he’d be able to cause more problems but as it is he just struggles more often then not because his position is naturally further away from goal this season compared to the past.

But like I said, you can tell he’s lacking confidence but I don’t know if that is enough to elevate him into a starter.

Yeah that's true. I do think there's more hesitation on his part even when he is in position, but I agree with what you say in his difficulties with being wider. Today was actually one of the first times in a while where I just felt the wide forwards were especially too far from goal to impact the game. Werner admittedly dealt with it better as he still had the pace to go around the outside and attempt a cross.

He'll have his uses, and today probably wasn't a game that suited him at all. For a while now I've felt like to really improve this side that one of things we need is someone better than him to almost shift him out of the starting 11. I mean that in all respect too.

And yeah, different player with confidence. Has a whole different energy about him that's lacking a bit at the moment.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Not sure about Kulu these days. Crazy he didn't shoot with his right foot that time.

 

[Dillspur]

No conviction. Would it kill him to use his right foot? Surely it isn't that bad...

he literally said he needs to trust it more after smashing one in against Forest(?) He was in a good position today to smash it first time (with his right), but tired to get it on his left and the opportunity was gone

 

[Tarricko]

Not worried about him at all. He's played a lot this season and has put a real a big shift in most of those. His running stats must be good?

He's just a bit out of form. And this wasn't the game for him. We needed width to stretch the game and Ange recognised that.

But yeah. Use that right foot. Didn't he whack in a goal a few weeks ago with it?!?

 

[Dazzazzad]

No conviction. Would it kill him to use his right foot? Surely it isn't that bad...

When he does its normally pretty good. Even hit one nice cross with it this game. Seems to overthink it but I think that can be cracked.

He's had a great season up until recently so will cut him some slack.

 

[BorjeSpurs]

That doesn't take into account quality of chances, he is 3rd at the club in big chances created and would be 5th when calculated per 90.

He is only slightly underperforming his xA with a 3 xA compared to 2 assists.

Well Johnson will have higher quality of chances created because his pace gives the likes of Richarlison tap-ins (when game state allows) whereas Kulu most often does it with a packed defence. Since joining the club he has similar assist stats to Saka from open play.

xA on understat shows as below, btw.

 

[Yantino]

The problem is his consistency. He goes through patches where he is almost unstoppable. His ability to steal possession is as good as anyone I’ve ever seen but he isn’t direct enough and needs to appreciate when he has half a yard and use his right peg sometimes.

 

[jordibwoy]

You know what really frustrates me is that after he scored his goal away at Forest, he made a big deal in his post-match interview about being so happy scoring with his right foot and how he needs to do it more. You can tell it's something he and most likely the coaches have been discussing because he gets so many opportunities to do so.

Yet he has a chance to do exactly that and cuts back on his left and gives the Brentford defenders time to recover and block his shot. That would've put us 4-1 up. Ange was fucking livid and so was I. I don't get it.

This is purely my opinion, maybe you guys will agree or disagree, but I get the feeling these players get instructions from coaches and focus on a weakness in some small window within a season (understandably), but you don't fix a weakness in a few training sessions. He has to take personal responsibility in improving his right. That improvement will do wonders for him but I just don't think he's being proactive enough in improving it. Or if he is, he needs way more work. But this is a gripe I have with so many professional footballers.

Sn: It's one of the reasons why I love Kane and Son so much, you've heard them in interviews (and testimony from others) about how much they work on areas to improve their game for hours outside of training. But modern footballers in general don't take that personal responsibility, have so many deficiencies in their fundamentals and there's so much pressure to compete in games and forge a career that they get overlooked. Unless they have good coaches who take care in identifying, then teaching/training young players, these players will carry these deficiencies into their professional careers. Son had his father, and Kane had his inner drive to be the best.

Sn2: I do have faith (more than I've ever had) in the long-term with Ange and this coaching staff at the helm, but you can't have improvement if you don't have a conscious awareness and drive of what to improve, and how. Deki has acknowledged it, I just hope he has the drive to really make his two footedness a real asset. But if he comes back next season and has the same issue I'll be really fucking peeved.

 

[allatsea]

My issue with him is that in this system I just don’t know what position he best suits. He isn’t good enough 1v1 and/or fast enough to be a WF and he isn’t instinctive enough and lacks vision to be a creative AM. He was certainly better when he came central second half and played one or two nice passes but he was sitting next to Maddison which opened up space for him.

There is no doubt he is lacking in confidence and he is still young so we certainly shouldn’t write him off. I just don’t know where his future lies in our current set up.

Ange plays him virtually every minute of every match when he isn't injured or ill. That must say something. For me he has the best football brain at the club and it is one of the reasons he plays all the time.

 

[hughy]

I still feel he's a nailed on starter purely for his ability to hold the ball up better than anyone else in our squad, but his form in the final third has definitely tailed off lately. There have been a lot of changes to personnel in our midfield/attack as of late, so I'm not sure whether it's a case of him just not being able to forge consistent partnerships. For example him and Porro were absolutely fantastic together for the first quarter/third of the season when we had a nailed on starting 11 and everyone knew their roles, yet there have been times recently where it looks like they've never even met each other.

Maybe all of these small personnel/positional changes are affecting him somewhat.

 

[hughy]

Think he looks tired and needs a break. He's normally pretty slow but today it was like watching my nan run down the pitch and she's been dead for a decade.

He had three weeks off before the City game.

 

[carpediem1906]

I still feel he's a nailed on starter purely for his ability to hold the ball up better than anyone else in our squad, but his form in the final third has definitely tailed off lately. There have been a lot of changes to personnel in our midfield/attack as of late, so I'm not sure whether it's a case of him just not being able to forge consistent partnerships. For example him and Porro were absolutely fantastic together for the first quarter/third of the season when we had a nailed on starting 11 and everyone knew their roles, yet there have been times recently where it looks like they've never even met each other.

Maybe all of these small personnel/positional changes are affecting him somewhat.

He hasn’t had a string of games where
(1) hes playing in the same position
(2) same players in and around him

to me this is why Deki has not been his usual self

telepathic understanding of who and what your team mates like to, can do, and will do, is so important to flow of football

he’s been a 10, an 8, a RWF past 6-10 games, and had Johnson n Porro sometimes, had Sarr and Porro others, Bentacur and PEH sometimes, PEH and Skipp others.

think once Sarr is back this weekend, we would see Deki more regularly at RWF, with Bentacur, Sarr and Madders starting more often than not as the CM 3.

then we should be able to see more incisive output from him

 

[carpediem1906]

He hasn’t had a string of games where
(1) hes playing in the same position
(2) same players in and around him

to me this is why Deki has not been his usual self

telepathic understanding of who and what your team mates like to, can do, and will do, is so important to flow of football

he’s been a 10, an 8, a RWF past 6-10 games, and had Johnson n Porro sometimes, had Sarr and Porro others, Bentacur and PEH sometimes, PEH and Skipp others.

think once Sarr is back this weekend, we would see Deki more regularly at RWF, with Bentacur, Sarr and Madders starting more often than not as the CM 3.

then we should be able to see more incisive output from him

He has the footballing brains and technical ability but he doesn’t have much pace nor the kind of skills to dribble out of a 2 v 1 press

hence he needs runners in and around him.

Bentacur Sarr n Porro in and around him will help him loads

Better runs from Johnson will also help him

Knowing where Timo is and will run to will also help him