WHEN YOU think of the Premier League’s best-attacking midfielders, names like Cole Palmer, Kevin De Bruyne and Martin Ødegaard spring to mind.
One of Tottenham’s problems is they haven’t had a player of a similar level occupying the number 10 role.
Yet they might just have found someone capable of reaching similar heights — and it happens to be an individual in his fourth season with the club.
Dejan Kulusevski’s career has been similar to Tottenham’s trajectory — brilliant at times, but maddeningly inconsistent.
Under previous Spurs boss Antonio Conte, Kulusevski was part of a formidable three-man attack, along with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min.
The Swedish international initially joined the club on an 18-month January loan from Juventus.
Spurs had struggled, with Conte replacing Nuno Espírito Santo in November of the 2021-22 season.
But Kulusevski’s eight assists and five goals — including one in a thrilling 3-2 win over Man City — were key to the club pipping rivals Arsenal to the final Champions League spot.
Yet that outcome proved a false dawn. Tottenham won the battle but lost the war. Two years later, the Gunners have morphed into legitimate title contenders while their North London rivals stagnated.
The club and Kulusevski struggled during the latter’s underwhelming second season in English football.
It all unravelled under Conte, epitomised by a hard-to-believe press conference in which the Italian coach blasted almost everyone at the club bar himself.
But it was a personal and a collective failure. The Swede finished the season with only two goals from 30 appearances — injuries and poor form were both factors in the performance decline.
A BBC Sport article headlined ‘Tottenham’s biggest disappointment this season’ summed up Kulusevski’s woes.
Yet this setback did not prevent Spurs from turning the player’s loan into a permanent deal.
With his imposing physical stature, it is easy to forget that he is still a young player, who will inevitably be prone to some inconsistency.
There was improvement last year in Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge.
Eight goals from 36 Premier League appearances was his best goalscoring return since managing 10 in 36 while on loan at Parma during the 2019-20 Serie A campaign.
And there are signs this year that the 24-year-old is moving to a new level.
Postecoglou now regularly plays him in a more central role rather than as a wide attacker.
James Maddison’s impressive displays in the first half of last season meant Kulusevski was largely confined to the wing at that point.
But the former Leicester City player has struggled with form and injuries since then, while the Sweden international has increasingly stepped up.
Of late, Postecoglou has played both Maddison and Kulusevski in an ultra-attack-minded midfield.
That strategy worked especially well in the 3-0 win over Manchester United.
Dejan Kulusevski - 24/25 so far. pic.twitter.com/bqLj4U7nFA
— Hugo ✞ (@HugoFilmz28) October 20, 2024
Kulusevski ran riot. He created nine chances (including six big chances) for his teammates, the most of any opposition Premier League player at Old Trafford since Opta started recording this stat in 2003.
Ex-Chelsea star Florent Malouda is the only other player to have registered more than six away to the Red Devils in the last 21 years.
While primarily regarded as a wide player by Premier League fans until recently, Kulusevski played centrally before coming to England.
“This is my position,” he told reporters after the Man United win. “I grew a lot because now I can defend. Before, maybe, I didn’t defend as much and that was why I didn’t play in the midfield. But now, I’m growing as a player and I can play to my strengths.
“I’m the best in the middle, I can score goals, I can find good passes and I play with Maddison, who is unbelievable with the ball. We have (Rodrigo) Bentancur who, when he plays like he did against United, is an unbelievable player. It looks offensive on paper but it’s working really well.”
🇸🇪 Dejan Kulusevski vs Premier League midfielders
— DataMB (@DataMB_) October 19, 2024
🥇 Most key passes (1st in Europe)
🥇 Most progressive runs (1st in Europe)
🥇 Most accelerations (1st in Europe)
🥇 Most deep completions (1st in Europe)
🥇 Most dribbles per 90
🥇 Most offensive duels per 90
👉… pic.twitter.com/4R4uziOwgC
Spurs have scored 18 goals — more than any other Premier League team at the time of writing — and Kulusevski’s creativity has been integral to their attacking prowess.
Yet Postecoglou’s ambitious approach has not always paid dividends.
Playing Bentancur, Maddison and Kulusevski worked so well against Man United, but the midfield trio looked lightweight in the subsequent trip to Brighton.
The lack of protection afforded to the backline was one of the reasons for Spurs’ second-half capitulation at the AmEx Stadium.
The visitors played some scintillating football, going 2-0 up in the first period. But the concession of three goals in 18 crazy second-half minutes resulted in their improbable defeat.
Postecoglou perhaps naively waited until the 79th minute (13 minutes after his team had gone behind) to make his first substitution.
After the humiliation against the Seagulls, for Saturday’s encounter with West Ham, the manager only chose to replace one of his midfielders from that game — Yves Bissouma came into the side at Bentancur’s expense.
The fixture at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium initially followed a pattern that Spurs fans will be all too familiar with.
Dejan Kulusevski vs West Ham pic.twitter.com/c7t7sz4DDm
— Hugo ✞ (@HugoFilmz28) October 19, 2024
The hosts dominated possession and territory, wasting some good chances before the Hammers capitalised on the sporadic defensive fragility that has consistently undermined the positive aspects of their rivals’ play.
As has often been the case, Kulusevski was the man to take responsibility during this difficult moment with the home crowd’s anxiety palpable.
The Swede’s well-taken 37th-minute goal meant the teams went in level at half-time.
Then, Postecoglou made a somewhat controversial substitution at the break following the unconvincing first-half display.
A conceivably defensive change saw Pape Sarr replace Maddison.
Yet this increased midfield solidity freed Kulusevski to roam into an even more attacking role.
The former Atalanta youngster was instrumental as his side scored three times in eight second-half minutes to blow their opponents away and he eventually claimed the man-of-the-match award.
Still, he has a long way to go before he can legitimately be compared to De Bruyne and Odegaard, but at the moment Kulusevski is developing into the type of player that Spurs can build the team around.
If they do that and Postecoglou can strike the right balance between attacking excellence and defensive pragmatism, a Tottenham team whose morale was on the floor going into the international break could finally lose the ‘Spursy’ tag and become a serious force to be reckoned with.
