Son continues to escape scrutiny: Opinion

Much has been made of certain players poor form at Spurs this season, with players like Emerson Royal being hammered by Spurs fans and the press.

However, in my opinion a player that should be seeing more scrutiny is Heung-Min Son’s. Son’s hattrick against Leicester before the international break has seemed to paper over a lot of cracks within the South Korean’s game this season.

The main part of Son’s game that he seems to be struggling with, is his passing and retaining of the ball. Numerous times this season we have seen Son’s final ball flatter to deceive, highlighted against Arsenal last weekend. So, I thought I would compare the South-Korean’s passing stats from last season to this season- all be it, this season is obviously a smaller sample size to compare from.

Stats taken from FB Ref – how Son ranks amongst players in his position across Europe’s top five leagues

Son’s passing stats from the 2021/22                                                          Son’s passing stats from this season

As you can see there is huge differences between the levels passing of last season, to this season. Especially when you look at certain stats like pass completion which is down from 59% to 34%. His progressive passes are also down, showing when he is trying to progress the ball, it most likely is not coming off. This lack of care and quality on the ball is one of the key reasons why Spurs’ attacks are frequently breaking down this season.

Son, normally so reliable in front of goal, is arguably struggling putting the ball into the back of net. As, if you if you were takeout Son’s goals against Leicester, he would currently be sitting on one goal contribution in eleven games – for a player of Son’s class, that just isn’t acceptable.

Hopefully, Son can soon get back to his electric form of last season and surge Spurs up the table.

What do you make of Son’s start to the season?