Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has cited Dejan Kulusevski as an example to insist that the challenge for him and his coaching staff is to ensure the growth of players who are in their early 20s.
In his second full season as a Tottenham player, Kulusevski has been used in multiple positions on the pitch, though his predominant position has been on the right wing.
The Tottenham manager insists that the job he and his coaching staff have been doing at the club is to make sure that they keep pushing the players to improve and be equally capable in different roles on the pitch, something Kulusevski has been doing.
“I think he’s played in every one of those positions you’ve mentioned this year”, Postecoglou said at a press conference while responding to a question on whether Kulusevski can be seen playing on the left or in a deeper position in the future.
“Deki and I think in general we’ve got a really young group and that’s what I keep saying.
“My role within that is to keep challenging and pushing him to improve because if this is the baseline for the majority of this group and we can get them to a new level when we’re already competing fairly well in this competition then that’s going to help us improve.”
The case is the same for all Tottenham players in their early 20s or are in their first or second year in the Premier League, Postecoglou insists.
“Whether that’s Kulusevski or Brennan Johnson or Van de Ven, or Destiny or Pape, all these guys who are in their very early twenties and only in their first or second year in the Premier League, that’s our challenge as a club and a coaching group to improve all of them.
“Positionally we’ll see where that develops but Deki has filled in all of those positions for us this year and just about done a good job in just about every one of them.
Kulusevski has featured in 27 of Tottenham’s 29 league games so far this season making nine goal contributions.
Postecoglou will hope to have Champions League football to further improve his players next term.
