Tottenham have had to contend with injuries to Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Son Heung-Min throughout the opening few months of the 2022/23 season.
While Spurs were perhaps fortunate not to lose all three at the exact same time, their respective absences have certainly affected Spurs in their Premier League and Champions League campaigns.
Both Richarlison and Son suffered their injuries in European action, while Kulusevski picked up a problem in his hamstring on international duty. While their injuries caused Spurs a lot of problems, Son's first absence from a matchday squad coincided with the return of Kulusevski for the Premier League match against Liverpool.
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While Conte undoubtedly missed the impact of all three forwards, his 20-minute cameo against Jurgen Klopp's Reds reminded Spurs fans just how good Kulusevski was and particularly how much they missed him in the two months he spent on the sidelines.
Within just a few minutes of coming in, the Swede had grabbed an assist poking through for Kane to fire past Alisson and his superb performance against Leeds on Saturday, which included assisting the winning goal, highlighted that Spurs do not have a player like Kulusevski in their squad.
His direct running and footballing brain makes him a crucial part of the Spurs attack, and a stat has emerged backing up just how much of a threat Kulusevski is.
A bar chart posted to Reddit has shown that Kulusevski is fifth in the top five European leagues this season for the highest total expected threat (xThreat) rate. The diagram also reveals that the 22-year-old ranks higher than Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe and Neymar, with fellow Premier League players Martin Odegaard and Kevin De Bruyne also placed below Kulusevski.
Team-mate of Mbappe and Neymar, Lionel Messi, ranks top comfortably, while Corentin Tolisso, Raphinha and Remy Cabella are the only players with a higher xThreat than Kulusevski.
After joining on-loan from Juventus, where Spurs will pay a loan fee of £8.3m (£2.5m last season and £5.8m this season), Kulusevski has six goals and 13 assists from 36 appearances, and with Sweden not heading to the World Cup he is likely set for an intense six weeks with Conte on the training ground as he gets back up to full fitness.
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