Son’s resurgence threatened by more Korea commitments
There are few sights in English football more exhilarating than Heung-Min Son in full flight, as Chelsea’s Jorginho discovered on Saturday.
Son sprinted nearly 70 yards, with Jorginho bobbing along helplessly in his wake, to score Tottenham’s third goal in the 3-1 win over Chelsea and remove some of the gloss from the summer signing from Napoli. It was surely not what Jorginho had in mind when he was told the Premier League is more fast-paced than Italian football.
Son’s first league goal since March capped his best performance of the season by some distance, something which has gone relatively unnoticed amid adulation for Dele Alli, who opened the scoring, and Moussa Sissoko, who somehow managed to be in more places at once than his France team-mate N’Golo Kante.
It was a typical display by Son, both menacing and a little wasteful as he missed three easier chances in the first half before ending the visitors’ hopes of a fightback in the 54th minute.
The timing of Son’s return to prominence is no coincidence. His subdued start to the campaign came off the back of a gruelling schedule for South Korea, culminating in eight matches in 26 days from mid-August, including six on boggy pitches in searing Indonesian heat at the Asian Games.
South Korea’s gold medal — coming along with precious exemption from his country’s mandatory two-year conscription — came at a short-term cost for Tottenham.
Before this weekend, he looked sapped and short of rhythm. But what a difference a rest can make. Son’s blistering humiliation of Jorginho and David Luiz came after he skipped South Korea’s friendlies in Australia against the Socceroos and Uzbekistan, demanded by Spurs as part of the deal to release him for the Asian Games.
Having barely had a holiday following the World Cup, Son spent the international break at Hotspur Way, enjoying some welcome respite. Saturday was also, surprisingly, the first time this season that he has started in a front four with Alli, Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane, having done so 20 times last year.
Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela both have cases to be Spurs’ story of the season so far but Mauricio Pochettino’s ‘DESK’ attack has a bit of everything, not least an understanding born of three seasons playing together.
On days like Saturday, there is a case that Tottenham’s frontline is more frightening than that of Manchester City or Liverpool.
The question ahead for Pochettino is how many times he will be able to use the quartet at full-pelt this season, with Son’s international commitments again likely to prove the biggest sticking point. In January, he is due to play for South Korea in the Asian Cup.
Spurs and the Korean FA have agreed that he will miss the first two group games but he is due in Abu Dhabi in time to face China in the third on January 16.
If, as expected, South Korea reach the final, Son will probably play five games in 18 days before returning to Spurs in February. Son’s commitments in the New Year promise another headache for Pochettino.
For now, the South Korean is back to his electrifying best but Spurs may only have a limited window to enjoy the kind of performance he produced on Saturday in their most dangerous attacking line-up.
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