MY ACCOUNT
Heung-Min Son may have scored his 100th Premier League goal for Tottenham against Brighton last weekend, but he goes into Saturday’s match with Bournemouth still trying to find some consistency.
The South Korean has underperformed and is set to have his least productive season since his debut campaign for Spurs.
This comes after the forward was the joint-top scorer in the English top flight in 2021-22, alongside Mohamed Salah.
Ahead of Tottenham’s home match with the Cherries, we ask what has gone wrong for Son this season and whether he can get back on track.
Numbers drop
Son has scored seven goals in 28 Premier League games this season. Take all competitions into account and he has 11 from 39.
He won the 2021-22 Golden Boot with 23 goals in 35 games. Some 19 of those strikes came from 26 matches under Antonio Conte, after the Italian replaced Nuno Espirito Santo as manager.
The last 10 league games were particularly fruitful, as Son scored 12 goals and assisted three more, to inspire Spurs to beat Arsenal to Champions League qualification.
Son’s output radically declined under Conte this season. The drop was instant, with the winger failing to score in any of the first six top-flight games, even though Spurs were unbeaten.
Dropped for the seventh match at home to Leicester, Son came off the bench to net a hat-trick, but he would make another eight league appearances before finding the net again.
Perisic impact
The big change to Tottenham’s regular starting line-up between this season and last was the addition of Ivan Perisic, who became the team’s left wing-back.
This has had a big impact on Son’s game. He has had to adopt new positions, is seeing less of the ball in dangerous areas and unsurprisingly, has scored far fewer goals as a result.
Perisic was formally a winger, before being converted to a wing-back by Conte at Inter Milan. He pushes high and remains wide, taking up the natural positions favoured by the South Korea captain.
Son has ended up playing in crowded infield areas, where it is more difficult to find space and he can do less damage.
Perisic actually supplied the pass to the forward before he produced a sumptuous finish against Roberto De Zerbi’s visitors for his 100th Premier League goal, but that was something of an anomaly.
Some seven of Son’s 11 goals this season have come when the Croatian is not on the pitch. Of the other four, two came in an FA Cup tie against Preston, in which Perisic was used as the central striker.
New manager
Not being able to adopt familiar positions and see as much of the ball in dangerous areas has perhaps impacted other aspects of Son’s game.
Any goalscorer will become anxious about ending a drought and can then overthink opportunities that come their way.
Seeing more of the ball in unfamiliar, busy areas has resulted in Son losing possession more often and making wrong decisions.
With Ben Davies, Ryan Sessegnon and Emerson Royal all injured, Spurs do not have another option at left wing-back and will have to persevere with Perisic.
Perhaps acting head coach Cristian Stellini can find a way of curbing his attacking instincts, to allow Son to flourish as he once did.
If not, then there is always next season, with Tottenham looking set to appoint a new manager, who would surely be keen to get the best out of the hugely-talented attacker.
