Dejan Kulusevski loves playing under Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, but it appears he enjoys learning from the manager behind the scenes even more.
Ange Postecoglou has completely revolutionised Tottenham Hotspur in just nine months in charge of the North London club, with the club now playing some of the best football in the Premier League.
After back-to-back stints under Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, and Antonio Conte, all of whom have rather pragmatic football styles, Tottenham fans were crying out for attacking football.
Not only has Postecoglou transformed the XI on the pitch, but he has also made a huge impact behind the scenes, with the players seemingly hanging on every word out of their manager’s mouth.
Dejan Kulusevski is a huge fan of Ange Postecoglou
Kulusevski has become the latest Spurs star to rave about the environment Postecoglou has created at Hotspur Way, stating that the Australian’s bravery is infectious.
He said (Player’s Tribune): “I think a lot of our family atmosphere is down to Ange.
“Ange is brave, and he makes you brave. He doesn’t say a lot, but when he speaks, we can listen for hours. You can tell that he’s been through a lot, and he often talks about what he learned from his father.
“He is different from any other coach I’ve had. Everybody talks about tactics and winning, and that’s good, but with Ange it means a little bit more, because it’s about you as a person. It’s about you as a man and what you believe in.
“Ange says, ‘I don’t care if we lose, because everyone loses in life. If we lose, we’re going to lose on our terms. Never go away from being you.’
“And that’s how I want to live my life. O.K., we’re gonna face the best, but we’re gonna do it our way. We’re gonna play like we did all our lives.
“Let me be clear: We want to win. We are fighting so hard to give you the trophies you deserve. We train for you, we eat for you, we sleep for you. We know that this club changes lives. It’s a huge deal to me when I see people wearing my shirt, because that means we connect on some level. And I still find it incredible that I can simply score a goal and send 60,000 people home happy.
“But we are also a young team with many new players. We’re not gonna win every game. And actually, Ange never speaks about trophies. He says, ‘Yes, we’ll get there, but first of all we have to become us. We have to find ourselves.'”
Spurs Web Opinion:
I would love to be a fly on the wall for one of these Postecoglou team talks. It sounds like whenever he speaks, the whole room listens. But I also get the impression that he likes to distance himself to maintain that sense of authority – the best of both worlds.