Antonio Conte has revealed that new signing Dejan Kulusevski has the potential to operate as a right wing-back for Tottenham.
A problem position for the club with summer arrival Emerson Royal having an indifferent start to his Spurs career, the club were expected to sign a player for the role before the January transfer window closed for business.
Adama Traore was seen as the man to come in but he instead headed for former club Barcelona from Wolves.
Capable of operating on the right wing and as a No.10 behind the striker, Conte confirmed in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Brighton & Hove Albion FA Cup game that the Swede also has the potential to play as a wing-back.
"The two players are fit and for this reason they are available tomorrow for sure. To start the game I think is not right because they need to work with the team for a period," said the head coach on Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur.
"For sure, they can come in to help us. Because these two players can help us a lot.
"About Kulusevski, he's a good player. He’s very young. I think he’s a great talent. He can play as a No.9 if you want to play two strikers, No.10 if you want to play with two players behind the striker.
"At the same time, he has the potential to play as a wing-back on the right. He has good quality. He likes to attack, he’s good one-v-one, he can create chances for his teammates. A good signing for us."
Tottenham may have seen more players heading out of the door than coming through it but Conte believe his squad does look better now.
"For sure, the squad is more complete because before if we had an injury, I was in great difficult, I was in trouble," he added.
"For sure, the squad is now more complete. We tried to fill the right role with one midfielder in Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski can play as a No.10 and also he can play as a wing-back.
"Now we’re more complete than before. Now it's time to work very hard to try to improve.
"We know very well there are many teams ahead of us. To catch up with them we need time and patience to work hard.
"Especially in the transfer market, we have to make not big mistakes. Because now – I repeat – there are many teams who started before us and they stay ahead of us.
"If we want to reduce this gap, the mistakes must be minimum in every aspect. On the pitch, outside the pitch. This is my vision, my thoughts."
