Tottenham Hotspur’s Dejan Kulusevski may only be 23 but he seems to be relishing the chance to become more of a leadership figure for Sweden.
Tottenham have a young side under Ange Postecoglou but they have been making impressive progress this season.
Take the 3-0 defeat at Fulham away for a second and you have to appreciate what Tottenham have done this term.
Postecoglou’s style and approach is completely different to that of Antonio Conte, a complete breath of fresh air after the fairly miserable end to the Conte reign.
It’s almost a year to the day since Conte left the club and Postecoglou has managed to breath new life into this Tottenham side with so many young talents in the squad.
One of them is Dejan Kulusevski, who has now been in the Premier League for more than two years having joined from Juventus back in January 2022.
The winger is really stepping up as a leader now and that has become clear during his international break with Sweden.
Jon Dahl Tomasson on Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski
Kulusevski lined up for Sweden on Monday night as they beat Albania 1-0 in a friendly.
This wasn’t a vintage performance but a win is a win, which will delight new boss Jon Dahl Tomasson in just his second game in charge.
Kulusevski stepped up to give a rousing speech before the game, attempting to rally his teammates towards a victory.
The Tottenham star told Fotboll Direkt that he just copied Postecoglou’s speeches at Tottenham and believes his Sweden teammates enjoyed what he had to say.
Boss Tomasson has also been quoted by Fotboll Direkt as saying that Kulusevski’s pre-match team talk was ‘fantastic’, noting that he focused on togetherness.
That is certainly a theme at Tottenham and Tomasson really likes that Kulusevski is stepping up to take more responsibility alongside the more experienced leaders of the squad in Victor Lindelof and Robin Olsen.
“Fantastic. He did very well,” said Tomasson. “He talked about sticking together and us being a family.”
“Dejan takes more and more responsibility. I like that. We need more of those players who take responsibility. Victor and Robin do it. But we need more players who do. It helps us in the end,” he added.
Kulusevski turns 24 in April but it’s clear that he has the fire inside him to really lead a team.
That side of his game seems to have developed under Postecoglou and that he wanted to copy the Australian just shows what kind of impact he has made.
Tottenham and Postecoglou will love hearing this from Tomasson and will be looking for Kulusevski to step up even more as a leader in the coming months.
The post 'I like that': International boss raves about 'fantastic' Tottenham Hotspur player after pre-match speech appeared first on HITC.
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