‘He told me’: Antonio Conte shares the one-word Dejan Kulusevski said to him at full-time yesterday
Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has shared with the club’s website the one-word Dejan Kulusevski said to him at full-time yesterday.
Spurs fell to a 2-1 defeat to Liverpool in north London after another poor opening 45 minutes.
Mohamed Salah’s brace in the first-half was enough to secure Jurgen Klopp’s men three points, despite a brilliant second-half goal from Harry Kane.
The man who set him up for the goal was Kulusevski as the winger returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The 22-year-old picked up an injury while on international duty with Sweden back in September and hadn’t featured since. Despite the defeat, the return of Kulusevski will give Conte a much-needed boost after he played for just over 20 minutes.
Now, Conte has revealed that he asked Kulusveski how he was feeling after the game and he received a one-word response.
What Kulusevski said to Conte
Speaking to Spurs Play after yesterday’s defeat, Conte said that Kulusevski was feeling fine after his return.
“It was good to see Deki back, yes, finally. It was important, good news,” he said.
“Deki only had a full training session with us yesterday. Today, he said to me, ‘okay, coach, for the last 20, 30 minutes, I’m available’. At the end, my first question (to him) was, ‘is everything okay?’ and he told me, ‘yes’.”
Spurs have missed Kulusevski’s creativity in the final third over the past seven weeks and will be delighted to have him back in the side.
The Swede created Kane’s goal within minutes of being on the pitch as he delivered a perfectly-weighted through ball to the Spurs talisman.
Conte has been without both Kulusevski and Richarlison in recent weeks, leaving him short of attacking options.
Heung-Min Son was also ruled out of yesterday’s game after he underwent surgery to stabilise a fracture in his left eye.
The Italian surprisingly turned to Ivan Perisic to lead the line with Kane yesterday and the Croatian performed well considering the circumstances. But Spurs looked far more threatening with Kulusevski playing alongside Kane and Conte will be delighted to have the player back.
