Kulusevski praises Conte for helping him thrive

Dejan Kulusevski

thinks the coaching style of

Antonio Conte

played a crucial role in the personal growth of the player at

following stagnating with the

boss, Massimiliano Allegri. The player established himself during the 2019-20 season when he was playing at Parma on loan from Atalanta. Kulusevski was able to attract the attention of Juventus, who spend €35million on him. Despite featuring in 55 matches in Serie A for the Juve, he had a hard time repeating the same consistency he enjoyed at Parma.

Tottenham penned a loan contract with the Sweden international in January for 18 months, with the contract becoming permanent for £29.2m (€32.6m) should some requirements be met.

Kulusevski was impressive with his performance and this season, he contributed three assists and thriving under the reign of Antonio Conte.

"In football sometimes things simply go wrong,"

Kulusevski told 

La Gazzetta dello Sport

.

"I have not changed anything about myself in recent months: mentally I went always to go on the pitch and gave my best.

"At Juve, however, it didn't work beyond what I tried to do. I didn't feel great for so many different reasons and when you realise that things are not right, then it's difficult to reverse course by staying in the same environment.

"So, the choice to leave Italy was the best I could have made in that situation.

"In England I am great, everything is better than in Turin, both on and off the pitch. As I said, now I really always want to play football."

Kulusevski is certain that the manager has played a crucial role. While he did not intend to disparage Juve’s Allegri, the player feels like he is doing great under Conte’s instruction as he is bringing the best out of him.

Quizzed whether Conte and Allegri had a big difference, he responded:

"Honestly, yes.

"I don't want to say that one is better than the other, because I have great respect for both Allegri and Conte and both have won a lot in their careers, but the job and the ideas of ​​football are completely different.

"At Tottenham, you struggle a lot more in the gym and you can see the results. I can say that from Juve to Spurs, the world changed for me.

"I have never met in my life, even outside of football, a motivated person like Antonio Conte. When he speaks to you, he enters your heart by force.

"At Tottenham my body changed – mainly thanks to the exercises in the gym – in no time. We work a lot every day and better than I did in Italy.

"I love how we train in London and for sure the credit goes to our coach: I'm very happy to play for him."

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