Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski has been praised for his Sweden performance despite their 4-1 defeat to Serbia on Saturday night.
Sweden have missed out on a spot in the World Cup later this year having been beaten by Poland in the play-offs.
Boss Janne Andersson is under huge pressure and that isn’t about to change after a chastening night in Belgrade.
Aleksandar Mitrovic bagged a hat-trick in a 4-1 thrashing, with Sasa Lukic batting Serbia’s fourth.
This all came after Viktor Claesson had put Sweden in front, with Andersson’s side ultimately falling apart.
Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski has been praised
Claesson’s opening goal came from a Dejan Kulusevski assist with the Tottenham man picking out a fine cross.
Claesson did the rest with a fine dinked finish but that’s as good as it got for Sweden.
The Swedish press are understandably baying for blood.
Missing out on the World Cup was bad enough but three points from five UEFA Nations League games is a disaster.
Fotbollskanalen have published their player ratings from last night’s defeat with the five-star and four-star ratings – for ‘world class’ and ‘very good’ left completely blank.
Tottenham star Kulusevski was the only one to land a three-star rating with praise heading his way for being Sweden’s ‘best player’.
“World class in the build-up to Sweden’s 1-0 goal. Always tried to be creative but didn’t really have the teammates with him. Was the team’s best player,” they wrote.
Every other Sweden player was rated at two or one star with the national media clearly unhappy with the performance.
This is what we come to expect from Kulusevski though. In a post-Zlatan Ibrahimovic world for Sweden, Kulusevski should become their leading light.
The 22-year-old is so unselfish, so creative, so mature for his age and Sweden will be looking for him to continue shining – even if others around him falter.
Kulusevski doesn’t quite have that role in the Tottenham side but his importance cannot be overlooked; he brings something that Son Heung-min and Richarlison just can’t offer.
Kulusevski will hope to start for Tottenham against Arsenal next weekend and take that international praise into Premier League action.
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