Teammates have made settling in easy for Luka Vuskovic

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

The 19-year-old defender is one of six ever presents this season in the Premier League.

Nick Szczepanik

2026-10-20T06:00+01:00

Luka Vuskovic brings the ball out of defence during Sunday's 5-0 win over Crystal Palace.

Luka Vuskovic has praised his teammates for helping him settle into the Albion team so quickly.

The 19-year-old Croatia central defender is one of six ever-presents in our Premier League team this season, helping to keep five clean sheets in seven matches including the past four in a row.

“I think the whole team is very happy because it starts from the striker to the goalkeeper,” he said. “So it's a full team effort but I think Bart is the happiest. It's very, very easy because they're all top players, top guys.”

Some new arrivals have needed a period of adjustment or a loan spell before being plunged into Premier League action, but Luka had already spent a season at Hamburg on loan from Tottenham and looked at home immediately.

“It just comes naturally because I have really good teammates that help me with comments and all the good coaching staff that do amazing analysis,” he said. “That has helped me a lot.

Luka Vuskovic heads the ball back into the six-yard box for Jack Hinshelwood to score Albion's fifth goal against Crystal Palace. 📷Paul Hazlewood.

“It was really simple to play from the first game. Everybody knows what to do. Everybody is willing to give 100% from the first seconds of the game.”

He also appears to have natural leadership ability, but prefers to give credit to teammates for that.

“I think it's because I'm playing with Dunky,” he said. “He's, of course, the captain and a legend of the club. So it also gives me the energy to try and support the guys.

“And also from Bart behind, who is always supporting and helping, as well. So it's all so simple.”

Luka also revealed that, like head coach Fabian Hurzeler, the players prefer not to spend too much time looking at the league table. “Honestly, I think we are all just going game by game because we have so many games,” he added.

“Now we play Jablonec away and we have a tough schedule. But we will keep going game after game and focus on winning the game and keeping clean sheets.

“We don’t speak about targets. We just say, ‘Let's give everything until the last game and we will see what happens.’ We start from the first second and we play until the last second. I hope we will be smart and do it until the rest of the season.”

For the record, Albion are third in the table. So has the team’s start been a surprise? “On one side I'm surprised, but from another side I'm not because we are giving so much on an everyday basis – in the training, off the training, in the meetings we have. I think it's just effort paying off.”

Albion’s next two league matches are tough trips to Liverpool and Manchester City. But Luka added: “We have to go confident into those games. It doesn't matter the result before, of course it helps, but those are the things you have to give everything from the first to the last second.

"So like on Sunday we need to start immediately, give 100% and we can play against everyone.”