Sven-Göran Eriksson: Dejan Kulusevski can be on Zlatan's level | OneFootball

After shelling out €35m (plus another potential €10m in add-ons) to land him this summer, Juventus have very, very high expectations for Dejan Kulusevski.

While on loan at Parma from Atalanta last season, the 20-year-old turned heads left and right, scoring 10 goals and nine assists from the right wing, earning his Sweden debut last October.

When asked whether or not Sweden are a better side without Zlatan Ibrahimović, Sven-Göran Eriksson was quick to sing the Juve new boy’s praises.

“That’s a very delicate discussion,” the Swede told The Italian Football Podcast.

“Sweden have been successful, you could say, in the last years. They have a collective team, defend extremely well, and work extremely hard.

“Their strikers in the last tournament were defenders and attackers.

“But, and there’s always a but, they don’t have a [Lionel] Messi, they don’t have a [Cristiano] Ronaldo, they don’t have a Zlatan.

“They don’t have that guy who can take the ball, dribble and put the ball in the net easily by himself.

“I can understand the coach. If he wants his team to play that way and for everyone to run, he can’t take Zlatan.

“Zlatan, I don’t know if he can, but he wouldn’t run like that. But he’d score goals.

“He [Kulusevski] one of those players who can score goals by himself and Sweden don’t really have those players.

“He’s only 19 or 20 but I think he has something. He can do things by himself and can decide a game by himself. Sweden need that and have always had that but right now we don’t.”

Kulusevski made his unofficial Juventus debut over the weekend, assisting Cristiano Ronaldo in their 5-0 victory over Novara.