Gold shares press box reaction to Kulusevski substitution in Tottenham loss

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Alasdair Gold has shared in a video on his YouTube channel what some of the journalists connected with Manchester United were saying when Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte decided to take Dejan Kulusevski off in the latter stages of their loss at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Tottenham, once again, followed a win with a loss. And in the process, their hopes of making the top-four in the Premier League were dealt a major blow.

Spurs were beaten 3-2 by Ralf Rangnick’s side. They equalised twice. But Cristiano Ronaldo was able to complete his hat-trick with nine minutes of normal time remaining.

Shortly before the decisive goal, Conte decided to make his first substitution of the evening. And, perhaps surprisingly, it was Kulusevski who came off, with Lucas Moura introduced.

Kulusevski has made a brilliant start to life on loan with Tottenham. And he was playing fairly well against United. Only Rodrigo Bentancur managed to produce more key passes for Spurs, according to Whoscored.

Some Tottenham fans may have been somewhat baffled by Kulusevski coming off. And they would not be the only ones, with Gold sharing how many of the journalists reacted to the Swede being taken off.

“When he was taken off, it was Lucas who came on. Honestly, all the Man U journalists in the press box were all like: ‘what? Why are they taking him off?’ And there was one guy who said really loudly ‘Spurs just took off their most dangerous player’,” he told his YouTube channel.

Conte decision on Kulusevski understandable as Tottenham pushed for winner

Kulusevski’s influence on the game started to wane before his substitution. And with that, Conte was perhaps justified in taking him off.

At the time, Tottenham were level. So while Conte would have been hoping to make the change that would inspire a win, he would have been wary of costing his side by upsetting the balance of the team.

Therefore, it probably had to be Kulusevski taken off. The alternative was substituting Son Heung-min if Conte felt that Lucas could change the game.

Kulusevski is well on his way to establishing himself as a key man in the Tottenham forward line. But you can understand why Conte wanted to keep Son and Harry Kane on at that stage.