Son Heung-min, seen at the scene of ‘first half 35 minutes 5 touches’, was tactically sacrificed
On the 6th (Korean time), British public broadcaster ‘BBC’ introduced the record, “Son Heung-min touched the ball 5 times in the first 35 minutes” during the first half of the Tottenham-Man City match.
In the English Premier League (EPL) in the 2022-2023 season held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, he wanted to inform the public that Son Heung-min “nearly touched the ball” until the 35th minute in the first half.
Even in front of the goal on the other side, there was Elling Hollan, who could hardly catch the ball, but ‘BBC’ pointed out Son Heung-min’s low contribution. 카지노사이트
Son Heung-min’s total ball touches on this day were 21 times. It is true that this is the lowest number in EPL matches this year. Compared to Arsenal last month (42 times), it decreased by half.
However, Son Heung-min, who watched the field, did not have a problem with his physical condition or was ‘skipped’ by his teammates, so the number of ball touches was not small. He was being sacrificed tactically.
On this day, he practically played like a side midfielder. He focused more on coming down to the Tottenham camp and joining the defense rather than the main task of receiving the ball from the left striker position and launching a counterattack.
It is said that it is inevitable to focus more on defense against Man City, a style that uses world-class players to occupy the ball, but Son Heung-min’s ability cannot be demonstrated with ‘side defense’. In the first minute, the point where the 80m ‘storm run’ started was right in front of the Tottenham penalty area.
On this day, manager Antonio Conte could not sit on the bench due to health problems, but the Tottenham coaches always used left wingback Ivan Perisic more aggressively. As a result, Son Heung-min was mainly located in the half space and had to go back and forth constantly. Through the heat map, it can be seen that there was a lot of time staying in the middle of the 2nd line.
It is undeniable that Perisic is a player who wrote a great history in the Croatian national team and Inter Milan. However, after coming to Tottenham, he is unable to show the sharpness of his time at Inter Milan. In addition to this, Perisic’s joining unintentionally blocks the aggression of Son Heung-min, the league’s joint top scorer last season. Coach Conte was also unintentionally sacrificing Son Heung-min tactically.
Local reporters and experts such as Gary Neville all said, “Son Heung-min is back.” However, ‘real Son Heung-min’ appears when he can shoot his unique, sharp two-footed shot. On this day, Son Heung-min recorded only one shot in the second half.