Spurs struck gold with a ‘world-class’ star who looks a bit like Odegaard and Foden

This season has been an eventful campaign for Tottenham Hotspur, although considering how last year went, it’s no surprise.

Once again, Ange Postecoglou’s team has been fascinating to watch, although a big reason is that you never know which team will show up.

Sometimes the North Londoners are able to defeat Manchester City away from the stadium, while other times they lose at home to winless Ipswich Town.

This tendency to oscillate between the spectacular and the disastrous is perhaps best exemplified in midfield, although there is one starter who has been impressive for most of the season, someone who has been compared to Martin Odegaard and Phil Foden.

Tottenham’s midfield options

Before getting to the player in question, it’s worth looking at some of Spurs’ other midfield stars and how they have performed this season, starting with co-vice-captain James Maddison, who has, unsurprisingly, impressed and disappointed this season.

For example, the former Leicester City star has accumulated a large amount of five goals and five assists in 20 appearances, but then appeared very off the pace and was unable to influence proceedings in games against Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Fulham, while he was not even trusted to start against Chelsea, Ipswich or Aston Villa.

Likewise, Yves Bissouma has produced some of his best performances in the Lilywhite shirt this season.

Against City in the League Cup, he cleared the goal line to deny Nico O’Reilly a guaranteed equalizer, and then, against Everton, he made amends. his preseason controversy scoring an absolute scream.

However, for every impressive performance, the Mali international seems to put in another worrying one, with his “dead” tackle on Moisés Caicedo, as Jamie Carragher described itjust the latest example.

That said, while there are some serious problems with Spurs’ current midfield options, they have at least one superstar among their ranks, someone who has made that area his own and earned comparisons with Odegaard and Foden.

Spurs players like Odegaard and Foden

So, to get straight to the point, Spurs’ ace compared to Odegaard and Foden is the incredible Dejan Kulusevski, but where do these comparisons come from?

well they mainly comes from FBrefwhich compares players in similar positions in the five major European leagues, the Champions League and the Europa League, draws up a list of the ten most comparable players for each, and in this case, has concluded that the Englishman is the seventh most similar midfielder to the Swedish in the last 365 days, while the Norwegian is the eighth most similar.

The best way to see where this comparison is coming from is to look at the underlying metrics that the trio rank closely on, including but not limited to expected and actual assists, expected non-penalty goals, key passes, and shot creation actions. , all for 90.

However, as well as the statistical similarities between the three, there is also the fact that both the City ace and the former Juventus star will occasionally play on the wing.

Likewise, the Arsenal captain spends a lot of time in games swapping with Bukayo Saka at right back, even though he officially starts in midfield.

That said, it’s not just the similarities with great players that make the Stockholm-born dynamo “world class”, as described by talent scout Jacek Kuligit’s also his production and his tangible impact on games.

For example, in just 22 appearances so far this seasonIn total, 1,469 minutes, the 24-year-old maestro scored three goals and gave seven assists, which is equivalent to a participation in a goal on average every 2.2 games, or every 146.9 minutes.

Ultimately, while Spurs have more than a few midfielders who seem unable to maintain their form at the moment, they also have a sensationally talented talent in Kulusevski.