Dejan Kulusevski in rare Tottenham shocker, he couldn’t stop losing ball in loss v West Ham United
There was a lot of hype about Tottenham forward Dejan Kulusevski in the build-up to Thursday night’s defeat to West Ham.
The Athletic reported that the 23-year-old was “in the best form” of his Tottenham career with journalist Tim Spiers saying that he has come “to the fore in the past month” after scoring against Chelsea and Manchester City.
Amazon Prime even aired an interview with the Sweden international ahead of Spurs’ 2-1 loss to West Ham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. When asked how he feels he’s doing this season, he simply replied: “I’m doing good.”
The hype was understandable. Kulusevski scored and assisted in the 3-3 draw at Manchester City on 3 December as he seemed to flourish in the central role with James Maddison out injured.
However, Ange Postecoglou stuck the former Juventus man back out on the wing against West Ham on 7 December and, unfortunately, it didn’t go well.
Whether it was a case of Kulusevski trying too hard to maintain the strong form he’s been in or it was an off day or West Ham had his card marked from the off, it’s difficult to say for sure.
However, there’s no denying that was one of the Swede’s worst performances of the season.
According to stats by WhoScored, Kulusevski was dispossessed six times in the 2-1 loss in North London. No other player on the pitch lost the ball more than him, with Lucas Paqueta coming next (three) and then Pedro Porro and Mohammed Kudus (both two).
Kulusevski also completed just two of the nine dribbles he attempted. Again, no player failed with the ball at his feet more than Kulusevski did in the whole game.
He recorded his second-worst performance of the season for bad touches of the ball (four) and despite playing out wide in this game, he didn’t complete a single cross despite completing one in each of his last two appearances when he played in the middle.
And even though he was playing out wide, Kulusevski somehow managed to attempt more passes (65) against West Ham than in any other Premier League match this season.
Kulusevski’s performance looked to be a bit of an identity crisis.
He was playing out wide but still trying to play as the main central playmaker, as he had been against Man City and Villa. However, while he was trying to do his wide-man duties, he wasn’t doing them to great effect at all due to how many times he was losing the ball and failing to complete dribbles or crosses.
Postecoglou may need to realise that Kulusevski is someone who’ll get better and better with some consistency. Unfortunately, the momentum he gained playing in the middle is probably gone unless the quick turnaround between fixtures against West Ham and Newcastle, who Spurs play on Sunday (10 December), mean he can seamlessly slot back into the middle.
Newcastle will be there for the taking after their heavy defeat at Everton on Thursday so if there’s a game for Kulusevski to bounce back in, it’s probably that.
In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy has to break the mould at Spurs with David Ornstein detailing FFP vigilance at the club.