Spurs may have just unearthed their new Christian Eriksen vs Man Utd

After a testing start to the Premier League season that saw them draw with Leicester City and lose to Newcastle United and Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur appear to have turned things around.

In the last four matches, Ange Postecoglou’s side have finally added a cutting edge to their impressive build-up play, winning all four games and scoring 11 goals to their opponents’ two.

Granted, two of those games were against Coventry City and Qarabağ FK, but yesterday’s demolition of Manchester United was a real statement win and one that should make the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, and the Gunners take notice.

Given the nature of the victory, several starters could claim to be the player of the match, but perhaps the most impressive showed that he could become Spurs’ new Christian Eriksen.

Eriksen’s Spurs career

It’s been over a decade since Spurs paid around £11.5m to Ajax for the services of the then-21-year-old Eriksen, and while he was a part of the club’s ill-fated ‘magnificent seven’, he was an undeniable success in North London.

Over the next seven years, the Danish superstar would make 305 appearances for the Lilywhites, in which he scored 69 goals and provided a staggering 88 assists, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 1.94 games.

Unfortunately, the Middelfart-borm maestro was unable to win any trophies with the club, but he was an essential part of the team that reached the Champions League final in 2019 and the League Cup Final in 2015.

Moreover, his sensational playmaking abilities were one of the key reasons, alongside the goals of Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, that Spurs were such a potent force in the league under Mauricio Pochettino.

Even at 32, with everything he has been through, he remains a talented international capable of putting on a “masterclass,” as BBC pundit Pat Nevin described his performance against Slovenia at the Euros this summer.

In all, Eriksen has to go down as one of the most creative midfielders in Spurs’ recent history, and while they have struggled to replace him ever since his £16.9m move to Inter Milan in 2020, Postecoglou may have just fashioned his own with another Nordic international.

Spurs’ new Eriksen

So, the Spurs player who is starting to remind us of Eriksen is fellow Scandinavian superstar Dejan Kulusevski, who initially joined the North Londoners on an 18-month loan deal from Juventus in January 2022, before the deal was made permanent in June 2023 for around £25m.

For the majority of his time in the capital, the Swedish international has played off the right of a front three, and while he has looked good there, scoring eight goals and providing 14 assists in 59 games, there was a feeling among fans that his technical ability was being slightly wasted out wide, and that when he starts in his second most played position, attacking midfield, he’s far more effective.

This is clearly a perspective shared by Postecoglou, as ten of the 24 starts the Swede has made in this position have come under the Australian, including in the game against United yesterday evening, where the former Juve star put on a creative masterclass.

During his 96 minutes of action, the “special, special player,” as Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir dubbed him, scored a goal, produced an expected assists figure of 0.38, took 61 touches, maintained a passing accuracy of 89%, was accurate in 100% of his long balls, played nine key passes, produced three big chances and even chipped in with two clearances and an interception for good measure.

Moreover, according to OptaJoe, he is the first visiting player to create nine chances in a game at Old Trafford.

Ultimately, while it is still early in the season, it appears that Postecoglou has found the perfect position to get the absolute most out of Kulusevski in this team, and if he can keep up the sensational form he has shown thus far, there is no reason why the Swedish international couldn’t become the club’s next Eriksen.