Dejan Kulusevski talks about what comes next for Spurs after the Liverpool defeat and how they need to learn Angeball.
Dejan Kulusevski and Tottenham had to have been tested. Most obviously on 61 minutes when Mohamed Salah scored for 5-1.
Alisson, the goalie for Liverpool, had just played a long, straight ball upfield a few minutes earlier when the exceptional Dominik Szoboszlai found himself in a one-on-one situation with Fraser Forster, the goalie for Spurs, which he was unable to handle. Later, Trent Alexander-Arnold would work for Forster remotely. Then Luis Díaz had an opportunity.
Liverpool was in full swing. After tearing through the entire game from every angle, it was simple to assume that they were out to do more than win—to put an end to Postecoglou’s idea as a going concern. Perhaps the Spurs needed to seal the gaps, tighten ranks, and be safe in defence. How must it feel to live this white-knuckleride while sporting the club’s white shirt?
“I said to myself [at 5-1]: ‘If you want to play, play now,’” Kulusevski said. “It’s easy to play when you’re winning. It’s easy to play when everything is going good. If you want to be a man, step up now and do your best. And that’s what we did.”
“Honestly, at 5-3, I said that we’re going to do it,” Kulusevski said. “It was so frustrating to see the ball go in [from Díaz] for 6-3 and after that the game is over. I really thought that it could happen, something special.”
The only football team in the world where a 5-1 deficit does not demoralise the players is Spurs. With Ange-ball, they have faith. It is a beautiful thing on one level. Spurs are one of the most entertaining teams in England because of this. On another, however, it may start to seem absurd. How much Ange-ball is too much?
Kulusevski is aware that there must be times when Spurs are more resolute and astute when they take the whole picture into account. There would be no betrayal. In this instance, they were overworked with eight players out of the lineup—nine if you count the first-choice left-back Destiny Udogie, who was only fit enough to sit on the bench and did not play.
It was put to Kulusevski that control during matches was something Spurs ought to seek. “If you want to get a result, maybe yeah,” he said. “You have to think about how are we physically? Who’s playing? How many games have we played the last week? Who are we playing? Have they rested for one week or something? You have to put everything in because it is like life – it’s not just black and white. It’s a lot of factors going into it.”
In the end, it is about whether Spurs’s approach is sustainable. “No, maybe not,” Kulusevski said. “But you have to improve, you have to find ways. Maybe we should have let them have the ball more but that’s not how we play. We went out, we gave everything. It didn’t work. Maybe we learn for the next time.”