View: Micah Richards spot on with assessment on 71% Tottenham ace, he really is 'Cooking'

Dejan Kulusevski showed why he’s one of the most important players within the Tottenham squad with his performance against Aston Villa in their 4-1 Premier League win on Sunday.

The attacker has adopted a new role in the centre of the park this season and has had one of the best campaigns in his Spurs career thus far.

He’s helped create more from the middle and his darting forward runs have allowed Tottenham to move the ball up the pitch quicker.

In fact, his performance against the Villans was so good that it resulted in Micah Richards lauding him and claiming that the Sweden international has been “cooking” this season.

“Do you know who’s cooking at the moment? Kulusevski,” he said on The Rest Is Football Podcast (4 November, 13:43). “He really is. That role in midfield; he can get on the ball and thread them passes.

“He played well in the League Cup against Manchester City and again I thought he was really good [against Aston Villa].”

Dejan Kulusevski has taken up a starring role in the Tottenham team

When Kulusevski was initially brought to Spurs, he was used as an attacker, predominantly on the right.

This season, however, things have been a little different and Ange Postecoglou seems to have unearthed a new area of the pitch the Swede can dominate.

As per Sofascore, in the 90 minutes Kulusevski played against Aston Villa on 3 November, he managed 42 touches of the ball and maintained a pass accuracy of 71 per cent.

He also chipped in with an assist and made three key passes throughout the clash. His crossing and long balls did, however, leave a lot to be desired with zero per cent of them ending up accurate, but that’s always something that can be worked upon.

As the Swede registered an assist, he created a big chance in the game and even though he didn’t have a shot throughout the clash, his role as a central midfielder didn’t give him much of an opportunity to have a go against Emiliano Martinez.

While his attacking prowess no doubt shone through on Sunday, he was also solid defensively. Kulusevski managed to block one shot, made one interception, three tackles and was only dribbled past three times.

If the former Juventus man keeps up this level of performance throughout the rest of season, it’s hard to see how Postecoglou could drop him from his starting XI any time soon.

In other Tottenham news, Manchester City are “optimistic” about signing one player from the club.

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