Dejan Kulusevski makes ‘poor discipline’ admission after Tottenham defeat v Chelsea
Dejan Kulusevski admits “poor discipline” cost Tottenham side in their 4-1 defeat to Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday 6 November.
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs lost their first Premier League game of the season and missed the opportunity to return to the top of the standings.
Kulusevski had put the hosts ahead but red cards for Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie, as well as injuries to Micky van de Ven and James Maddison, left Tottenham with too much to do, as Chelsea took advantage and scored three second-half goals to win the London derby.
It was a frustrating evening for everyone involved with the club and Kulusevski has admitted that the team perhaps got a bit ahead of themselves.
“The first 15 minutes were amazing, we played unbelievable football – some of the best so far in the season,” Kulusevski said, as reported by The Guardian (7 November).
“But then we were too hyped up and did some bad tackles. In the end, we paid for it. Was it poor discipline that cost the team? Yes, a little bit. We want to win a lot and here with the fans, they help us up. Sometimes we tackle a little bit too hard, too strong and we pay for that. But it’s good. We have to learn and we will learn.”
Ex-Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson spoke to Tottenham News about Romero’s poor discipline:
“It is a liability because we talk about it most weeks, and you’re just waiting for it to happen. It is not a case of if, it is a case of when. I am surprised it has taken this long into the season,” he said.
“He could have been sent off ten minutes before for kicking out, stupidly. He has got that in him, he is that type of character. There is part of that you don’t want to take out because that is what makes him the centre-back he is and there is a lot of me and a lot of the fans who love that side of him.
“I think in the partnership he has with van de Ven, the fact that he has got that edge to him, it is fantastic. But he has to put a lid on it at times. We all laugh and say it is just a matter of time until Romero is going to get sent off, but the impact his sending off is going to have on the team is huge.
“You know it is coming, so as a player and a person, you have to find a way of curtailing that in some way. How you do that is difficult, he is a fantastic defender, he and van de Ven have been brilliant, and that edge, aggression, cutting edge and will to win is in his game. But when it comes to the detriment of your team, and it becomes too regular, it is a problem.”
In other Tottenham news, one player stood out against Chelsea, despite the nature of the defeat.