Pochettino: Versatile Heung-Min Son deserves his share of the limelight
After Tottenham’s thumping 5-2 victory over Southampton on Boxing Day, Harry Kane found himself the focus of the attention and adulation – as he so often does.
It was entirely understandable. After all, the 24-year-old had just set a new record for Premier League goals in a calendar year and become the highest-scoring player across Europe for 2017.
Yet those achievements meant the contributions of his supporting cast were slightly overlooked.
Dele Alli got some attention after netting his first goal in 11 matches, as he showed further evidence of a welcome return to form, but Heung-Min Son’s latest impressive display went slightly under the radar.
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His strike was his fifth in seven games, and he also set up Kane’s second of the day with a low cross.
In total Son has contributed nine goals and five assists in the first half of the season, having racked up 21 goals and seven assists last term.
The 25-year-old has sometimes struggled to secure a regular starting berth and was often the odd one out when Pochettino adopted a 3-4-2-1 system last campaign, with the Argentinian generally using Kane, Alli and Christian Eriksen as his front three.
However, it has become very difficult to omit Son now, and Swansea will surely be punished on Tuesday night if they, like many members of the footballing fraternity, focus on Tottenham’s other attacking threats and ignore the South Korean.
“I think he’s such an important player for us,” said manager Mauricio Pochettino. “He’s scoring a lot of goals and is very consistent in training and in his performances.
“He’s not a striker but he can play like a striker. He’s not a winger but can play on the wing. He’s not a No10 who plays in the pockets like Christian or Dele, but he can play there.
“It’s true that maybe he doesn’t get the headlines of Harry and other players, but it’s good to recognise him because he’s a great guy and a very good professional.
“We, the coaching staff, give him the credit that he deserves. But of course it’s like a player next to Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo that deserve a lot of credit. When you are next to Harry Kane, who scores and scores, and with all that he achieves, it’s normal that the focus is more on Harry Kane or on Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo than someone like Son.
“But all the team loves him – not only because of his performances but because of how he is as a man.”
Son recently won the International Asian Player of the Year award and is a global superstar back home – a David Beckham-esque figure.
“Maybe Son is like this but here he’s so humble and such a normal guy, and that makes him bigger,” added Pochettino.
Son endured a slow start at Tottenham in 2015 and it was unclear whether he would spend more than one season in north London.
Looking back, Pochettino feels the South Korean is another example of a player who struggled to find his feet after moving in the final week of the summer transfer window.
“He arrived again in the last days, you remember?” said Pochettino. “He started playing at Leverkusen, he had a problem with his manager, then there was the opportunity to sign him and he arrived without any pre-season with us.
“Always it’s tough for players who arrive at the last moment. It’s a very tough period to adapt and build confidence, and for the team it’s difficult too because you don’t know [them].
“After two months of training and all the pre-season, you start the Premier League and one new player arrives who needs to do everything with you, and the team is in a different dynamic.
“That’s why I said to you a few weeks ago that we need to try to sign before, to be clever, because if not we’re going to miss some period of adaptation – and then if the team is doing well, how do you put a player in if another is doing well? It’s not the same possibility to fight for the same place with another team-mate.
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“It’s like [Moussa] Sissoko, who this summer was available from day one and had the possibility to show and fight for his place and then to be important in the team. That’s the reality and why Sonny is now much better.
“I think [Daniel Levy, the chairman] agrees that we need to try [to sign players earlier], because every season for us it’s the same. We need to think, to review everything and try to change things.
“Always it’s important to improve and try to do better. Daniel agrees with me that, if we can, we’re going to do it, if it’s possible.”
Time will tell whether Pochettino gets his wish, but the summer of 2018 is set to be an important period for the club for even bigger, historical reasons – this is due to be the year when Tottenham move into their new stadium and begin life in their new home.
“That is so important for the team, for the club, for the fans, for everyone, to settle in the new stadium,” said Pochettino.
“The moment you are in the new stadium and you start to feel that that is your home, you can be stronger, and that will change completely the atmosphere and of course the vision from the people, the players – it will be completely different. For me it is the moment to say we are a real contender.”
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