Dejan Kulusevski

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matspur said:
Quite a lot of Juve supporters weren’t that keen from memory. He is a divisive figure I get that. I would hazard a guess (I could be wrong) that most Spurs supporters view our attack as the area most in need of attention when everyone is fully fit.
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It comes down to opinions. The day Kulusevski's transfer became permanent I didn't think he was a Postecoglou-type winger. That was my opinion then. Is that still the case...Objectively when I look at his numbers, they're up there with the better players in the league, so maybe I'm wrong.

In any case who would you pick who is available, affordable, and wants to be here?

I would agree that the attack needs most attention. Richarlison's gotten better as the season has gone on, but has butchered an awful lot of chances. At the pointy end of the table, they all add up.

Also I'm not convinced Maddison and Bentacour can play together, but that could be due to both recovering from injuries. We shall see.
 
Mampi said:
Well he's a player that frequently gets rated as one of our worst every week on here except the games where he is clearly doing well.
Because we lost against Wolves he was rated 5.71 as our 5th best player on here.
If you look on whoscored, he was our highest rated player on the day. He's also our 4th highest rated player over the season.

Vs Wolves, 4 shots (1st), 2 on target (1st), and of course was our scorer.
4 successful dribbles (1st, 100%), 4 successful tackles (1st).

Though I can't quickly find up to date stats, earlier in the season he was 1st in the league for distance covered. I'm pretty sure he still covers at least the most distance per game for us.

He's our 3rd to scorer, only Maddison making more key passes per game, makes the most successful dribbles per game (also the most unsuccessful) and in turn is our most dispossessed player. Though I attribute a lot of that to Ange insisting wingers try and take players on.

He is a good player and offers us a lot. It's just not as obvious I think mostly due to what looks like laboured, lethargic movement - and those fucking back post crosses that never seem to come off.
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Can your stats tell me how many times he didn't pass the ball into space, look for a runner, take a man on, go round the outside and cross, or just generally try to speed things up?
Can those stats also tell me how many times he did put his foot on the ball when a break was on, pass inside when there was a through ball, cut inside when the box was full of players and lose the ball or piss a team mate off when he didn't react quick enough.
Stats are useful, but they don't tell the full story of anything.

BTW, everyone bar a few at the back were shit against Wolves. So being the "5th best rated" player in a poor team performance means he was pretty fucking terrible tbh.
 
Matt1882 said:
Can your stats tell me how many times he didn't pass the ball into space, look for a runner, take a man on, go round the outside and cross, or just generally try to speed things up?
Can those stats also tell me how many times he did put his foot on the ball when a break was on, pass inside when there was a through ball, cut inside when the box was full of players and lose the ball or piss a team mate off when he didn't react quick enough.
Stats are useful, but they don't tell the full story of anything.

BTW, everyone bar a few at the back were shit against Wolves. So being the "5th best rated" player in a poor team performance means he was pretty fucking terrible tbh.
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Stats are useful and can be misleading.
The examples of play you refer to - how many of his decisions can you be confident were his instinct, or coached as his role in the game plan or even shouted from the side line?
If he doesn't follow instructions for his role in the team, he should be and would be dropped - unless his returns overall seem worth having in the side more than what someone else would contribute.

This is where I think he is currently. Overall he is a better option for the team than Johnson, Gil or whoever and offers us a different set of qualities.

5th best rated player does mean the fan perception of his performance was 'pretty fucking terrible' giving him a 5.71 average rating, even though he actually scored a really good goal and contributed. Were the goals conceded directly his fault? Probably not. Had we won the game 1-0 via his goal with exactly the same performance otherwise, would he have been rated as 'pretty fucking terrible' at 5.71? Probably not, more like 7.5-8.5 rated.

His contribution was regarded as shit by the fans, like is the case with most players in most games we fail to win - when really to score a goal is a great contribution. The problem was we were losing and he didn't come up with another 1-2 goals/assists, because that's what the situation determined we needed from him to regard his performance as 'good'. You can slow down play, cut inside and lose the ball, piss team mates off etc and be regarded as having a good game if directly contributing to goals being scored.

Stats that formulate a player rating at least take emotion out of the equation whilst equally not considering the state of play at the time of the actions. Losing with 5 minutes to go, punting the ball back to the keeper would be registered as successful passes when we all know that's not what we want to see at that moment. But in saying that, overall he was still one of our better contributors on the day.

Son for example has had plenty of stinkers where he scored and we won. Whilst his giving the ball away and missed chances won't be ignored, at the end of the day we can also recognise he did score, which when combined with a win is all we could really ask for.
 
Mampi said:
Stats are useful and can be misleading.
The examples of play you refer to - how many of his decisions can you be confident were his instinct, or coached as his role in the game plan or even shouted from the side line?
If he doesn't follow instructions for his role in the team, he should be and would be dropped - unless his returns overall seem worth having in the side more than what someone else would contribute.

This is where I think he is currently. Overall he is a better option for the team than Johnson, Gil or whoever and offers us a different set of qualities.

5th best rated player does mean the fan perception of his performance was 'pretty fucking terrible' giving him a 5.71 average rating, even though he actually scored a really good goal and contributed. Were the goals conceded directly his fault? Probably not. Had we won the game 1-0 via his goal with exactly the same performance otherwise, would he have been rated as 'pretty fucking terrible' at 5.71? Probably not, more like 7.5-8.5 rated.

His contribution was regarded as shit by the fans, like is the case with most players in most games we fail to win - when really to score a goal is a great contribution. The problem was we were losing and he didn't come up with another 1-2 goals/assists, because that's what the situation determined we needed from him to regard his performance as 'good'. You can slow down play, cut inside and lose the ball, piss team mates off etc and be regarded as having a good game if directly contributing to goals being scored.

Stats that formulate a player rating at least take emotion out of the equation whilst equally not considering the state of play at the time of the actions. Losing with 5 minutes to go, punting the ball back to the keeper would be registered as successful passes when we all know that's not what we want to see at that moment. But in saying that, overall he was still one of our better contributors on the day.

Son for example has had plenty of stinkers where he scored and we won. Whilst his giving the ball away and missed chances won't be ignored, at the end of the day we can also recognise he did score, which when combined with a win is all we could really ask for.
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This is a really long post and I'm way too busy to give it the attention it deserves. But the first bit interested me the most and I totally have the same question.
There's currently a massive love-in for Ange where fans think he can do no wrong. And any shortcomings of the team at the moment are the players fault. But how do they know the players aren't being told to make 40+ passes before trying a weak shot.
If that's not the game plan, I would 100% expect to have seen a change by now. But we're doing the same thing now that we did against Sheffield United, 9 man Liverpool etc in the earlier stages of the season.
 
Murphy said:
But he is left footed. Fuck this inverted bollocks off and try him on the left. He won't cunt back as often.
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He doesn’t have anywhere near the pace or agility to play as what would essentially be a touchline winger.

You’d be losing out on the things he actually does well by stopping him coming in to central areas.

I can’t think of anything easier to defend against than a one footed touchline winger with no pace or turn speed.
 
Deuterz said:
He doesn’t have anywhere near the pace or agility to play as what would essentially be a touchline winger.

You’d be losing out on the things he actually does well by stopping him coming in to central areas.

I can’t think of anything easier to defend against than a one footed touchline winger with no pace or turn speed.
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But somehow he's better on the right?
 
If he could cross like David Beckham he would be alright on the left.

Honestly from what I have seen of his floaty left footed in swinging crosses from the right, I genuinely believe I would have a better success rate from those positions on my weaker foot with a cigarette hanging out my mouth.
 
Murphy said:
But somehow he's better on the right?
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Yes. He’s better when he comes inside than when he goes wide and relies on crosses. Not perfect, but better. He’s just not got the pace to hug the touchline.

His game is much more suited to being inverted than it is to being a traditional winger. Like says he’d basically be a Beckham style player on the left, but without the pinpoint crosses or the worldies or the set piece ability.
 
Murphy said:
But somehow he's better on the right?
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Quite likely yes.

Just sticking him on the left doesn't mean he's just gonna hug the touchline for 90 mins.

He's at his best cutting inside and interchanging with a WB (the best version of him was when he was paired up with Doherty... They clicked.)


Think for a moment.... If Ange didn't want him to cut inside then he'd just tell him to stop and if he continued to do so regardless he'd just drop him.
 
Airfixx said:
Quite likely yes.

Just sticking him on the left doesn't mean he's just gonna hug the touchline for 90 mins.

He's at his best cutting inside and interchanging with a WB (the best version of him was when he was paired up with Doherty... They clicked.)


Think for a moment.... If Ange didn't want him to cut inside then he'd just tell him to stop and if he continued to do so regardless he'd just drop him.
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With the ball at his feet in a congested 18 yard box he can actually be very impressive at times.

Against Wolves I don't think it helped his game at all having Emerson instead of Porro, but also our midfielders having stinkers.

Ange's system seems to be reliant on triangular patterns and having 2 options. Take them away or offer difficult options instead, then 'standing around' / 'slowing down play' / 'being slow to release the ball' makes more sense.

Wolves game isn't an exception with our midfield either. It's been a long time since our middle 3 were all clicking and available.
 
Dejan is quality but we all know that he needs to play centrally like he did when Maddison was out injured rather than on the right.

fans being so quick to pile on a player for not delivering is nothing new as well sadly. Fickle bastards.
 
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His best passes yesterday were done with his right foot (like cross to Son when we hit the post). He needs to do that more often - otherwise he is done as a right winger due to predictability.
 
He's a work in progress. He's still so young and will have a lot to offer going forward. His strengths and the way he plays, he will be more suited to some games than others depending on the opposition.
 
ShutUpPatrik said:
Dejan is quality but we all know that he needs to play centrally like he did when Maddison was out injured rather than on the right.

fans being so quick to pile on a player for not delivering is nothing new as well sadly. Fickle bastards.
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He’s Swedish so you think he’s quality but really he’s just alright. Sorry.
 
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