Dejan Kulusevski has admitted that he is not satisfied with the level of his performances during parts of the 2022/23 season.
Dejan Kulusevski was one of Tottenham‘s standout players in the second half of last season following his switch from Juventus, and Spurs fans would have expected the Swede to hit even greater heights in his first full season at the club.
However, the 23-year-old has fallen well short of the high standards he set for himself, ending the 2022-23 campaign with just two goals to go with his eight assists across all competitions (Transfermarkt).
The winger has now admitted that things have not gone according to plan for him, partly down to the injuries he suffered.
Kulusevski told Football.London: “It’s been a long season, very long. It started very good and then I had a couple of injuries for the first time in my career.
“Then after that I felt very good but I started dipping. I had a dip from maybe February, when I didn’t play so good.
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“Then I started playing better and in the last months I played pretty good but the only thing missing is maybe the final pass and the goals.
“So of course a disappointing season but no regrets. I know I gave it my all. I’m going on vacation now for a couple of weeks and then looking forward to the national team.
“To be honest it was many games this season that I also played good (as opposed to the dip in form). As I mentioned I had one month where I struggled but that is normal – no players don’t struggle.
“You want to keep that time as short as possible so when you’re not in a good mood maybe you play badly in two or three games, and not a whole month. I have to be better in that aspect but I know that I can do much more in the future.”
Tottenham ended up with a disappointing eight-place finish this season, which means that they have failed to qualify for any European competitions for the first time since 2009.
However, Kulusevski saw the silver lining with the outcome, pointing out that the team can focus primarily on the Premier League next season.
When asked about Spur’s failure to qualify for Europe, he said: “You can see it in many different ways but one way is that we can only concentrate of the Premier League next year.
“When you have too many competitions it’s much harder. I know before I’ve played at clubs where we didn’t play in Europe and then we played in the league against some teams that play in Europe and they were much more tired, so I think we can have a little edge in the Premier League.
“Of course, you also have the [domestic cups] too. When we played in the Champions League this season, it was amazing and we passed the group stage but when it really mattered we weren’t good enough.
“We have to rest a little bit. It’s been a very, very long season with the World Cup also. You have to reset, forget about football for at least one week and let your mind breathe a little bit.
“Of course, we’re always positive about the future. We love what we’re doing and at this club, there’s a lot of talent and when there’s talent, everything can happen.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I do not think it would be fair to judge the players too harshly on their form post-February as the turmoil behind the scenes with respect to Conte and Stellini cannot have helped their cause.
Many of our players, including the likes of Kulusevski and Romero are nowhere near as bad as they seemed in the final few months of the campaign.
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