Dejan Kulusevski has admitted Tottenham lack maturity and discipline to be title contenders.
Kulusevski said they are missing Arsenal ’s mentality and are guilty of making basic defensive errors on set pieces. Arsenal scored from two corners in their north London derby win on Sunday and Kulusevski claimed they are a long way short from being to match Arsenal.
Incredibly, that is now 14 goals conceded from corners by Tottenham this season, which is among the worst in the Premier League and Sky pundit Paul Merson even claimed they made errors “you wouldn’t see happen in an under-12 football match.”
Spurs winger Kulusevski said: “They are much more disciplined. Much more disciplined and a little bit more mature. That is where we are lacking at the moment. They score on corners. We concede. It is quite easy. You can also see on the second goal it is too easy. A long ball from Kai Havertz to Bukayo Saka and it is 2-0. Of course we have to improve on that here.
“It is always the bigger picture in sport. But then we have to take responsibility. We have to win games. We have to improve. If we are not doing that then people are of course going to be disappointed. We have to grow because you cannot concede easy goals like that. The football is quite good. But we have to improve here.
“Mentality is important. It is all in life. That is the only thing that matters. The head. You can be how good you want in football but you’ve got to be strong in every situation. Of course, they, Arsenal have obviously done that in the last period. They fight to win the league. We still have to do that. We are improving in other areas. We still lack a little bit in that part.
“I don’t think it is about ambition. I think everybody wants to win but then you have to sacrifice a lot for that. It is a lot. Talking about mentality, do you think it is easy to be down 3-0 at half time and then go out and play 3-2 against the ones that are first? That is also mentality. Second half was unbelievable.
“We are showing it, it is just that you have to show it for 90 minutes. If not it is difficult. We are showing it in bits but we have to do it much more consistently.”
Kulusevski also claimed he “no longer understands” the rules on VAR after Micky van de Ven had an effort disallowed for offside to make it 1-1. The ball hit two Arsenal defenders on the way through and Kulusevski admitted he wishes VAR could be scrapped like they have done in his native Sweden.
He added: “I really don’t understand the rules in those situations. I can’t believe it. I was there. It touched two Arsenal players and it is still offside. I don’t know. Maybe I don’t know the rules. It was strange. It changes everything from 1-1 to 1-0. We score, we score. Of course from the first day they brought it in I was not a fan. They chose the rules. I don’t decide. I think it’s not as fun for nobody, the fans, the players, but that is a completely different discussion.”
