How much would a revival of peak Dejan Kulusevski help Tottenham?

Tottenham Hotspur right winger and attacking midfielder Dejan Kulusevski has been logging more and more minutes for club and country, marking his return to the pitch for the Swedish national team over the November break after appearing in his fourth Premier League game of the season the previous weekend against Leeds United in another bench appearance.

The positive momentum and optimism has led Spurs fans to wonder what a revival of the prime Kulusevski would look like in this Tottenham team, particularly since so much has changed. Beyond the fact that Kulu going back to his best is far from guaranteed after the devastating nature of his knee injury in the 2024/25 season, despite how sprightly he looked in his very return game against Coventry City, Spurs now have two very talented right wing options in Savio and Mohammed Kudus. And if you count Luca Williams-Barnett, they actually have three.

Kulusevski's best season of his career actually came long before he arrived at Tottenham, because it was before he arrived at Juventus. He was the Serie A Young Player of the Season in 2019/20 for Parma while on loan and genuinely looked like the next big thing in Calcio before Andrea Pirlo ruined him by turning him into an inverted wide right midfielder in a 4-4-2, which is a position that does not even exist.

Back then, Dejan Kulusveski hit 10 goals and 8 assists, which are both marks he never hit at Juve or Tottenham Hotspur. But at Tottenham, he became more well rounded as a progressor and even a ball winner. In the 2023/24 Premier League season for Spurs, Kulusevski had 8 goals and 3 assists with 2.2 combined tackles and interceptions while also averaging 1.8 key passes and 1.5 dribbles completed per game.

Kulusevski at his best gives James Maddison and Mohammed Kudus runs for their money as starters, and he has a better case for starting in the middle of the attack than Dominic Solanke or even Omar Marmoush on current form.

The best version of Kulusevski is one of the better creators, progressors, two way wingers, and supplementary scoring options in the Premier League. Tottenham could genuinely use Kulusevski in his capacity over Kudus in the 11 if Savio gets injured again or over the other options in the 10 if neither Maddison nor Xavi Simons are available. But at the same time, he's not a better 10 than Maddison, he's not a better right winger than Savio, and he's not enough of a scorer to be the solution at the 9 either over signing a real one in the winter.