Juventus-owned Dejan Kulusevski explains why he was so ‘hungry’ when joining Tottenham Hotspur, thanking Antonio Conte for ‘finding the perfect position’ after Max Allegri and Andrea Pirlo experiments.
The 21-year-old Sweden international never quite settled in Turin after the €35m plus bonuses move from Atalanta, via a loan spell at Parma.
He made 74 competitive appearances for the Bianconeri, scoring nine goals and providing 10 assists, but was also used in a variety of roles including the right wing, left wing, central midfield, support striker, trequartista and even centre-forward.
Kulusevski hit the ground running at Spurs following the loan with option to buy transfer in January and spoke to the official club website to explain what had changed from Serie A to the Premier League.
“I think that I wanted to show everybody what I could do,” he said. “I think I maybe became even more motivated. I love proving people wrong, so I was very hungry when I came here.
“But, still, I knew it would be very, very difficult to arrive in a new league and everything that comes with that. A lot of things had to click, and, honestly, everything has clicked so well.
“With the coaches, they found the perfect position for me, so I can have the ball a lot, attack the goal and have opportunities to score goals and assist my team-mates.”
It’s not just a tactical issue that Conte has helped to resolve for Kulusevski, as he also found confidence that was sorely lacking, especially under Allegri.
“I think you can see, when I play, I play freely, without really thinking, without worrying about mistakes, I just play my game. That is when I play at my best. I am happy when I can do that.
“And my team-mates have been amazing. From the first day, I got a really warm welcome and, on the pitch, we have fun together – that’s very good. I also knew some of them from before.
“The most important thing is that we have fun away from the pitch and we are like a family and then, on the pitch, everything is easier.”
In only 14 competitive appearances for Tottenham, Kulusevski has already racked up three goals and six assists.
💬 “I think you can see, when I play, I play freely, without really thinking, without worrying about mistakes, I just play my game.”
“That is when I play at my best.”
A special interview with Deki ⤵️
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 19, 2022
So this is basically a dig at Allegri, lord of slow-mo football?
He is lucky. Chiesa, Locatelli, Vlahovic and De Ligt and all talented young Juventus players should follow him and escape from allegri before their time is up. But I worry Chiesa won’t be the same player once again.
He thrives on open spaces and making runs, things that he could not do in Serie A while playing for Juve.
I think it had more to do with that.
Happy for him either way.
Run away from Allegry RUN “the talent killer”. Juve will realize it when its too late , i believe we have one more year with Allegry before we totaly go down.
And Bentancur’s excuse?
Lulu’s mindset needs to improve. If you can’t be motivated when you’re earning 100k+ a week, then you’re mentally immature. Conte is a sledgehammer and that’s what he needed. But he’s very error prone and based on his comments, he sees no reason to improve that aspect because he wants to run carefree.
Kulu is very young and still can improve much more but Allegri don’t know how to improve players, especially youth players. He always prefer the finish products.
It all worked out in the end for him and it looks like he is overcoming the trauma of back, back, down, down PhD Max, Harvard Scholar of slow ball.