As he took his place on the bench ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1-1 draw with Leicester City, one member of Ange Postecoglou’s matchday squad could have been forgiven for wondering what more he had to do.
Arguably no one in a Spurs shirt impressed more in pre-season than Dejan Kulusevski.
In a new-look ‘false nine’ role, the silky Swede excelled throughout the summer.
Three goals and three assists to show for his efforts, Kulusevski may have thought that – despite the £65 million club-record signing of Dominic Solanke – he had done more than enough to nail down a place in Postecoglou’s XI ahead of Monday night’s trip to the King Power Stadium.
Not so. In the end, the £25 million acquisition from Juventus played only the final 11 minutes as Leicester pushed for a dramatic late winner.
Solanke started through the middle in a promising but profligate debut performance. It was Brennan Johnson, meanwhile, who was given the nod on the right-hand side with Heung-Min Son lining up on the opposite flank.
Dejan Kulusevski on bench as Tottenham draw at Leicester
With Son anonymous and Johnson struggling to put his breathtaking speed to good use, Tottenham – in hindsight – maybe could have used the creativity and craft of Kulusevski to break down a physical Leicester backline.
Graham Roberts, an FA Cup and UEFA Cup winner with the North London giants in the 1980s, is one of those who feels Kulusevski deserved the chance to build on a shining summer as the competitive fixtures got underway.
Tottenham host Everton on matchday two.
While Ange Postecoglou was disappointed by the way his side sacrificed control after a dominant first-half in the Midlands, that will be nothing compared to the feeling Sean Dyche was left with after Everton were hammered 3-0 at home by Brighton.
With Jarrad Branthwaite unavailable and Michael Keane enduring a nightmare afternoon against Danny Welbeck and co, Solanke should have further chances to open his Spurs account against the Merseyside outfit.
Postecoglou is full of praise for the impact made by former AFC Bournemouth talisman. While Solanke did miss a few presentable opportunities, the physicality and presence he brings to the Spurs team stood out right from the off.
Dominic Solanke keen to open his Spurs account
“Yeah, he was good. He worked hard for the team,” Postecoglou said of Solanke, via Football London. “He had a couple of chances he will be disappointed he didn’t do better with.
“The overall performance of everyone was OK, but it doesn’t mean anything if we don’t turn that performance into outcomes. We had similar issues last year and if we’re going to get to the next level as a team and bridge the gap to the top sides, it is an area of the game we need to improve.”
“Yeah, look disappointing outcome. Very dominant first half, really wasteful in front of goal. We started the second half similarly. First 15, 20 minutes, very dominant, wasteful but you know at 1-0 there is always an opportunity for the opposition to come back into the game.
“That’s what happened and we lost our way for 15 or 20 minutes. We lost our composure and the crowd got behind them.
“Just really disappointed we lacked a little cutting edge in the front third, made some poor decisions, lacked some composure and didn’t get the reward our football deserved.”
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