Primary Position – Left Midfield

Other position(s) – Left Winger / Second Striker

Last season’s form – Games 35 / 8 goals 7 assists

Born in Split, Croatia in January 1989, Perišić started his football journey in the youth setup of his hometown club Hadjuk Split. After a short spell at Sochaux, he joined Belgian outfit Club Brugge in August 2009 for a fee of €250,000. He scored on his debut in the opening match of the season as well as in his second game. He went on to score nine goals for Brugge in the 2009/10 season over 33 appearances. He was the Belgian league’s top scorer in 2010/11 with 22 goals and was named their Player of the Year.

Dortmund signed the Croatian in May 2011 for a fee of €5 million from Brugge and he contributed seven goals and three assists over 28 appearances in his debut season. He featured for only half of the 2012/13 season for Dortmund and was signed by Wolfsburg in January 2013 for a fee of €8 million. He went on to make 70 league appearances for the German side, contributing 18 goals and 12 assists.

In August 2015, Perišić signed for Italian giants Inter Milan for a fee of €16 million. He made his debut for the club just three days after signing and contributed seven goals and five assists over 34 league appearances in his first campaign. He improved on this further in 2016/17 with 11 goals and nine assists over 36 games. His consistent returns continued in 2017/18 as he recorded double digits for both goals (11) and assists (11) over 37 matches. This included his first Serie A hattrick in a 5-0 win against Chievo. Despite only eight goals in 2018/19, he was Inter’s second highest scorer after Icardi.

Perišić struggled to fit into new manager Conte’s plans in the preseason of 2019/20 and was loaned to Bayern Munich. He made only 22 league appearances for the Bundesliga side, registering four goals and six assists but was part of a squad that won the Bundesliga and the Champions League. He returned to Inter for the 2020/21 season and was fielded as wing-back under Conte rather than in midfield. His attacking output naturally dwindled but he still notched four goals and five assists in 32 appearances. Conte departed the following season and under Inzaghi he was given more minutes which resulted in eight goals and seven assists in 35 league appearances.

Perišić has had a stellar international career with 32 goals for his national side Croatia over 113 appearances. A tireless runner, he covered the most ground of any player in the 2018 World Cup, running a total of 72.5 kilometres. He also scored twice in the group stage of Euro 2020.

An extremely versatile player, Perišić has played in numerous positions over his career both on the left and the right. Even in his wingback role in 2020/21, he registered an average non-penalty ‘Expected goals’ and ‘Expected Assists’ (npXGi) figure of 0.44 per game. To put that in context that’s level with Alexander-Arnold (0.44) and just behind R. James (0.40). That number dropped only slightly to 0.42 in 2021/22 despite significantly more minutes

Perišić racked up 2821 league minutes last season which indicates he still has the fitness and stamina to feature regularly at the top level. The left wingback spot was a problematic one for Spurs last season with Reguilón and Sessegnon both failing to impress. The Italian is likely to use Perišić in the same role he did with Inter and if he is classified as a defender in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), he would be an outstanding option given how frugal Spurs were at the back under the Italian. At the age of 33, he might not start every game but Conte is not a manager who usually rotates significantly so if he stays fit he should get regular starts as the step up in quality is massive from their other two left wingback options.

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