Tottenham have their mentality monsters back to breathe life into Roberto De Zerbi project
Two huge stars are back in the fold as Spurs starting looking up the table
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Sam Tabuteau, Sports Reporter
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There was no grand emotional outpouring, no quiet moment of reflection, nor a vulnerable look to the heavens as Dejan Kulusevski prepared to make his long-awaited comeback from injury.
A brief exchange with the oft-impassioned Roberto De Zerbi, a glance at the tactics board, and away he went, roared onto the pitch by the 60,000-strong Spurs support.
It is a testament to Kulusevski’s selfless, God-fearing personality that he could put his own emotional return to one side to help Spurs over the line for their first league win of the season at home to Coventry.
De Zerbi introduced Kulusevski with the game finely balanced and Coventry pushing for an equaliser, and it was evident that the steely-eyed Swedish playmaker was not just there for moral support.
James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski
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His rampaging runs into the channels got Spurs up the pitch at a time when they threatened to retreat into their own box, and despite nearly 18 months on the sidelines, there was no sign that Kulusevski felt physically inhibited as he put Coventry on the back foot.
After the full-time whistle blew, a wave of relief rippled round the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and Kulusevski indulged in the emotion of an occasion which only a few months ago he thought might not be possible, sharing a long embrace with James Maddison, who has been on his own journey back to fitness.
Speaking to the media in the tunnel, Kulusevski described how he had told his loved ones that he may never set foot back on a football pitch. Then, as if by chance, his daughter ran past wearing a shirt with “my hero, 526” written on the back. Family has been his driving force, his will to return even when it felt impossible.
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“Imagine when everyone give up on you. Imagine that you can’t, and you know football for me is like breathing,” Kulusevski said as he paused to reflect on a momentous evening for himself and his family.
James Maddison celebrates wonderstrike
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“Imagine you can’t breathe for two years, but still you have a family, you show up, you do it with a smile, you go with your teammates, you hype them up, and that takes a lot of love, a lot of courage and a lot of belief.”
Spurs looked a more confident, more clinical team, with Maddison and Kulusevski back fit, and De Zerbi believes that “with them in the dressing room, there is another atmosphere.”
Different characters, but similar journeys, De Zerbi knows that Spurs must look to Maddison and Kulusevski for inspiration on and off the pitch.
A rare home win, just their sixth in the past 37 home league games, owed a lot, particularly to Maddison’s influence on his first start in 17 months, but also to Kulusevski and showed Spurs exactly what they have been missing.
The north Londoners’ issues are myriad, but it is no coincidence that without Maddison and Kulusevski in the side, they have lacked creativity and conviction.
If Spurs are to push on this season, then they would do well to learn from Maddison and Kulusevski. Their mental resilience is an example for the rest of the team, and something that has been in short supply.
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