Dejan Kulusevski: 'Antonio Conte wants me to kill opponents & not have fun'
By Sean Walsh
Tottenham forward Dejan Kulusevski has opened up on the lofty demands that head coach Antonio Conte has of him.
The Sweden international has proved to be an inspired signing following his initial loan arrival back in January, linking up superbly with Harry Kane and Son Heung-min and becoming one of the Premier League's most potent attacking threats.
While Kulusevski's transition to English football has been seamless, he has admitted that Conte is still demanding more from him.
When asked if he could get nastier like the Italian has asked of him, Kulusevski replied: "I don't know! I can attack the goal more, for sure. Sometimes I'm just in a different world when I play.
"I feel so comfortable sometimes, so I just play and have fun, but he doesn't want me to have fun - he wants me to kill the opponent in a sporting way!"
Kulusevski further revealed that Conte was not happy with Spurs' first-half performance in their 1-0 win over Wolves at the weekend, going into the break having been outshot one to 12 by their visitors.
Scott Saunders, Graeme Bailey,Toby Cudworth and Harry Symeou bring you Talking Transfers, discussing Antony attempting to push through a move to Man Utd, Frenkie de Jong and Pierre-Emerick Aubayemang's futures at Barcelona and Arsenal's interest in Pedro Neto. Available on all audio platforms and the 90min YouTube channel.
If you can't see the podcast embed, click here to download the episode in full!
"He was angry, but we were all angry at ourselves. Early in the game, we didn't wake up, we didn't play good. We played a little bit with fear," the 22-year-old addd.
"We have to improve. We have a good team like we showed in the second half, but we have to show that from the first minute. We have a lot of improvement to do."
"I feel that for sure [that's a game Spurs might not have won last season]. I think even if we're not playing at the top level everybody, we're still winning. That's very important.
"We have to win. It doesn't matter how you play, you have to win. It was a very good result, and we're very happy."