Dejan Kulusevski had a big say on proceedings as Tottenham returned to the pitch with a thumping 4-0 win over Motherwell on Friday afternoon. Last playing four weeks ago when Leeds United visited north London, the friendly against the Steelmen gave a number of the Spurs squad a golden opportunity to get some minutes in the tank.
Taking the lead through Kulusevski after only two minutes, there was only ever going to be one winner once the Swede had found the net with a simple finish after some good pressing from Bryan Gil. Doubling the lead through Matt Doherty following a good turn in the area, Bryan got a goal for himself after Kulusevski put the ball on a plate for him after an eye-catching move.
Doherty then rounded off the scoring as he netted a rare header after getting on the end of the Swede's precise corner in the second half. Contributing with one goal and two assists, the Republic of Ireland international waxed lyrical about his teammate and opened up on his importance after previously missing 10 games through injury in October.
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"He's vitally important," Doherty told SPURSPLAY. "You see what he brings to the table when he plays and you see how he impacts the team when he doesn't play.
"Always involved with going forward, whether he's scoring or creating, and just personally for myself I love playing with him as he understands people's games around him and understands my game. I like to combine and link so when I give him the ball he can usually lay it off one touch and we seem to link up well together. He's a pleasure to play with and we're glad to have him back."
Showered with praise by Doherty, Kulusevski was then asked if he was happy with his teammate's assessment of him.
"Yeah, I'm almost going to cry," he responded, which had the experienced right wing-back in stiches. Kulusevski couldn't stop himself from laughing either and both departed their pitchside interview with huge smiles on their faces.
Following a tough period through injury after sustaining a hamstring issue on international duty in September, Kulusevski made an immediate impact on his return to the side in the Premier League games against Liverpool and Leeds United. Opening up on how he's finding the training following their return to Hotspur Way, the youngster did indicate that the players did some "new stuff" in the Motherwell game which he likes, which in turn may only bode well for the team when they return to Premier League action later this month.
"I feel very good. It has been two hard weeks of a lot of training so this game was a little bit hard but it was very fun," he admitted. "As Matt said, we did it the right way, pressed good, played good with the ball, we have to improve and we did some new stuff that I like. So we keep working and it's going to be good weeks."
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