Tottenham might be missing James Maddison at the moment but they have a player in the squad who thinks he can replace him.
Spurs lost to Aston Villa at the weekend as Ollie Watkins fired Unai Emery’s men to a big win.
Ange Postecoglou had a number of injuries, including Maddison, and was forced to shuffle his pack a lot in terms of his selection.
As part of that pack shuffling, the Spur boss opted to go with Dejan Kulusevski in a more central role from the start.
And the £25m Swedish winger believes that he can very much play the position while Maddison is out.
Dejan Kulusevski thinks he can replace James Maddison
Speaking to Football.London about the Villa game and his ability to step in for Maddison, Kulusevski was full of confidence.
“I felt so good today, I felt like the real Dejan. I felt like myself today and the coach decided where to put me. I enjoyed and I had real fun playing today. It was a great day for me,” Kulusevski said.
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“Absolutely. I’ve done it all my life so it’s nothing new to me. Of course in the second half I played right wing but I felt good. Physically I feel really good so I’m happy and I know I’m on the right path to make better and continue to play like this.”
Not quite the same
It’s great to hear Kulusevski have so much confidence in himself and want to step up to fill in for such a big player being missing.
However, for all his endeavour and quality, he is not the same player as James Maddison and it showed at times.
Kulusevski has his own abilities and qualities and they are different to Maddison’s. That’s not to say he can’t affect the game centrally, it’s just he’s not quite in the same league as ‘Madders’ when it comes to certain aspects of his game.
Tottenham, ideally, need both players in the starting XI and the sooner that’s the case, the better.
Kulusevski will continue to do his best and contribute. But right now, he’s not at Maddison’s level in that more central role.