This is Dejan Kulusevski’s third full season at Tottenham Hotspur, which feels appropriate because he has performed three different roles during that time.
When he moved to north London from Juventus in January 2022, originally on an 18-month loan that eventually became a permanent £31million ($40.8m) deal, he slotted into Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 system as a right winger. He made his debut off the bench in a 3-2 defeat to Southampton, replacing Lucas Moura to join Harry Kane and Son Heung-min in attack. Kulusevski demonstrated his attacking threat by scoring and assisting on his second start, a stunning 3-2 victory away to Manchester City.
He finished the 2021-22 season with five goals and eight assists in 18 appearances.
Ange Postecoglou’s appointment as head coach in June 2023 prompted the first positional change. Postecoglou prefers Brennan Johnson on the right because of his speed and willingness to whip crosses across the box compared to the left-footed Kulusevski, who likes to drift inside. After James Maddison suffered an ankle injury last November, forcing him to miss 10 games, Kulusevski stepped up as the main creative threat from central areas.
The final day of the 2023-24 campaign witnessed a new experiment. The 24-year-old started up front and scored twice in a 3-0 victory over relegated Sheffield United. It is a role he performed throughout pre-season because Richarlison was recovering from injury, while club-record signing Dominic Solanke did not officially join until August 10 — just over a week before their opening game against Leicester City.
Kulusevski in action against Everton (Mark Leech/Offside via Getty Images)
So where does Kulusevski belong in the starting XI and which role suits him best? After the 3-2 pre-season defeat at home to Bayern Munich, Postecoglou downplayed the chances of Kulusevski featuring as a striker again, with Solanke having just signed.
“No, I don’t think so,” Postecoglou said. “The reason we signed Dom, and hopefully Richy should be ready as well, is that we want to have a player through that area who is a bit more accustomed to that role.
“(Kulusevski) has done a great job for us but I think his strengths and attributes are more in that attacking midfield or wide role. I think he is really developing and has had a really good pre-season for us and, hopefully, it gives us some more flexibility and potency through the middle when he is playing because he can get into those scoring areas.”
Solanke suffered an ankle injury in the 1-1 draw with Leicester which prompted Postecoglou to change his tune ahead of the 4-0 win over Everton. “It’s an option,” Postecoglou said two weeks after his initial comments. “(Kulusevski) is such a hard worker, he runs a lot and really well. He can link up with the rest of the team in the build-up. I think he can do a job for us there but it’s not his best position.”
You can see an example of what Kulusevski offers as a false nine from the defeat to Bayern. Pedro Porro clears the ball up the pitch and Kulusevski competes for it aerially with Kim Min-jae.
They both miss it initially and then Kim tries to locate Dayot Upamecano.
Kulusevski intercepts the pass and Johnson collects the loose ball before driving forward into space.
Johnson aims his cross towards Kulusevski.
It bounces awkwardly off Joshua Kimmich into the path of Kulusevski, who pokes it past Manuel Neuer. It is a goal that sprang from his determination to hassle opposition defenders. He then reacted quicker than anybody else to reach the loose ball.
There is something majestic about watching Kulusevski out wide though. He elegantly glides into space and leaves defenders tangled in knots. Take this example from a 2-0 victory over Chelsea in February 2023. Chelsea’s attack has broken down so Cristian Romero passes it towards Kulusevski.
Kulusevski moves ahead of Ben Chilwell before cleverly letting the ball roll across his body.
It looks like he is trapped on the touchline by Chilwell and Raheem Sterling, with Enzo Fernandez lurking just out of shot.
But he escapes with a cheeky nutmeg on Chelsea’s full-back.
Fernandez and Sterling have been left behind, so Kulusevski finds Harry Kane in the centre circle.
The England captain shuffles away from Thiago Silva and sprays a pass to the overlapping Ben Davies.
Tottenham created a 3-v-4 situation from Kulusevski’s bravery on the ball in his own half and they eventually won a corner.
It is this exceptional skill in tight spaces, though, which makes the prospect of him regularly playing behind the striker so appealing.
When Spurs travelled to play Nottingham Forest last December, Kulusevski picked up a goal and an assist, but this action at the beginning of the game stands out too. Romero threads a pass between the lines…
…and Kulusevski takes an intelligent first touch with his right foot which takes him away from Ryan Yates.
Yates and Willy Boly are closing in but he slips a perfect through ball behind Neco Williams for Son.
Son takes a heavy touch, which allows Forest keeper Matt Turner to close down his shot, but this sequence should have led to a goal.
Solanke’s absence from last Saturday’s game against Everton led to a lot of theorising about who would replace him and how the front three would shape up. Would Richarlison, Son or Kulusevski start up front?
What few anticipated was that Kulusevski and Johnson would both start, with the former as an attacking midfielder. They have started together 18 times in the top flight since the start of last season but only seven of those games have come since the end of 2023. They combined excellently for Yves Bissouma’s opening goal which gave us an insight into Postecoglou’s potential long-term vision.
Johnson moves inside from the right and plays a slick one-two with Kulusevski, who makes the return pass with his backheel.
The Wales international charges into the box and Idrissa Gueye pokes the ball away towards Maddison, who passes it first time to Kulusevski.
He tricks Gueye into a risky slide tackle with a sway of the hips and then glides past Vitaliy Mykolenko.
Six defenders are circling him but he lays a pass off to Bissouma…
…who hammers it past Jordan Pickford.
Even though Kulusevski started in midfield, this is one of the rare examples from that game of him impacting play centrally. If you take a look at his touch map, nearly everything he did was on the touchline.
Maddison’s touch map shows the complete opposite. He had a large concentration of touches towards the left but still spread out everywhere.
The average positions graphic from that fixture shows that Johnson (22) and Kulusevski (21) were practically on top of each other. Kulusevski cannot rein in his instinct to drift out wide but when Johnson made underlapping runs, it caused Everton problems.
Kulusevski is no longer just competing with Johnson for the right-wing position. New signing Wilson Odobert, who made his debut on the left against Everton, is comfortable playing there too and did so on multiple occasions for Burnley last season, while Lucas Bergvall looks like the heir to Maddison’s throne as the chief playmaker.
Maybe Postecoglou sees Kulusevski as multi-functional, able to drop in across the pitch without a significant drop in quality. It is a role he has seemingly already accepted because, during the pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea, he said: “I might start (a game) as a midfielder and then go out to a winger.”
“Last year was the first time I played as a No 10 in the Premier League, so people could see what I can do from that position,” Kulusevski added.
“But I also know that sometimes I will have to play other roles and I will have to be prepared to do everything. Ultimately, the only goal is to win and so it doesn’t matter where you play, you just have to do what’s best for the team always.”
(Top photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
