Son Heung-min @ Tottenham Hotspur FC 2016-2017 [R]

I'm on the same boat that Son isn't a world class player. Great finisher/scorer, great pace. Above average crosser, decent passer, above average dribbler, terrible first touch. These attributes make him a notch or two below World Class level.

 

Son playing like he wants to avoid sangju sangmu.

 

World class is like top 5 in the world at your position. Love the season Son's had, but never tell other football fans that SHM is world class. No offense, but you're going to make us look bad if you do that. It's a really exclusive label in this sport, and Son needs at least a few more seasons like this one to enter the conversation.

That said, it's hilarious how some people can look at Son's 21 goal season and honestly believe that it isn't impressive. That's cognitive dissonance bordering on delusion. Now every dedicated fan knows who he is now, and the vast majority of them rate him. He's literally become a world famous player. That's the kind of season he's had and that's the kind of improvement he's made. You haven't been watching enough football if you didn't know that.

 

Impressive, yes but lets not count the goals against Millwall.

 

Son is world class...in not committing fouls. This season he was flagged only 9 times, fewer times than Winks, and even Lamela. Not sure what this says though.

 

This board has always been reluctant to give credit for Son's performance. He had a historic season that none of the KPA has ever than in last 20 years. "Don't count Millwall goals", "His first touch isn't good enough" and etc. It is pathetic how this board has always been far generous on scrubs like PCY, JDW, KJC, KSY and etc.

 

Nah

 

First of all I said some of you...

Secondly...
You use the Liverpool game as an example? Liverpool had their best season in a long time and should have been challenging for the title. His touch and one touch passing is not as poor as you make it out to be. It's not world class but it is not utterly shit. Have u seen pjs in his first couple seasons for man utd? Horrible.. Not saying he is world class but he is better than most players in the epl. His 2nd goal today showed his class. Good close control and terrific placement. Not many professional players can pull that off in any top league let alone epl...and more than once in a single season.

 

Son's best attribute for me is his willingness to always make himself available and once he gets the ball, to always drive forward and constantly be attacking. Wish more footballers had that attitude. Yah, Son is still prone to the odd f*ckup now and then, but he's always putting himself in good positions with his attacking runs and moving the ball forward. Eventually leading to goals for either Kane, Alli, or himself.

 

Yeah agreed. He does have a knack for being in the right position. I know some of you call that "luck" but it does take instincts and football IQ to able to place yourself and just instrinctively know where to go. Not many Korean strikers have this ability. Last one I could think of was Yoo Byeong Soo but he's no longer relevant.

 

Well I exaggerated about calling him "world class" and you misunderstood me. I guess I was influenced by the media nowadays that call every player some sort of world class. He's definitely not on a level with the biggest stars yet. Even from the Spurs attackers he's only no.4 after HK, DA and CE. Still, he has become much better than the last seasons so I am very positively surprised. I hope he keeps it up and becomes even better.

 

My concern with Son is that he needs to develop the other aspects of his game. A fast-paced strikers generally lose their speed as they get older (obvious statement I know) and Son relies heavily on his pace to beat his opponents. He needs to start developing more of his technical skillset to compensate when he does lose his pace

 

This isn't going to happen. He has passed the age where he can develop or vastly improve technical "skillset". Imo, he needs to improve awareness & tactical understanding to get the best out of his skillset. At times, he is either downright selfish or oblivious to his surrounding. Of course, this all comes with age, experience and work ethic in the end.

 

He definitely needs to work on that. But the second goal yesterday was pretty well made, technically too. I hope it means he's on it.

 

Fair enough, but if he can polish his technical skills a little more, he will be better off (obviously)

 

here's the thing. if you only watch his "Honey Heon" touch videos and never watch the entire match that he plays, you will easily scrutinize every touch that he effed up or every poorly timed run where he put himself offside. basically, every bone-headed mistake he made.

he sacrifices a lot of himself (as we know Poch and Poch's tactics ask him to) to stretch the field. his link up play with Alli, Kane and Eriksen has been at times sublime. he's scored 20+ goals (legitimately 2 footed) and picked up the slack (while others failed) whenever Harry went down. 2 major injuries for Kane and w/o Sonny in September and the 2nd half of the season, they are nowhere near chasing top of the table.

i also don't understand how some here who rightly pointed out how horrible his tactical positioning was in Germany (particularly his HSV days), can't give him and Poch the credit they deserve for rectifying and improving a lot of these mistakes in his game. yes, he was once the headless chicken but the man clearly has a purpose when he's on the pitch now. you can see Poch is in his head, "In this situation, I need you to be here. In that situation, you need to make your run and Deli and Christian (or the WB's) will look for you. In transition, I need you to peel and make yourself available." etc. etc.

Only 24. look at what the next 6 yrs have to offer. huge upside. and for now, he's with the right team, right teammates and right manager.

 

I think "world class" implies World Player of the Year potential. Like global starting XI.

SHM is an elite player. Let's agree on that.

 

Not really. His positioning understanding hasn't increased that much, the Tottenham attacking lineup benefits greatly from sturdy CMs and the defence. He almost never has to cover for the wing-backs like he did at Leverkusen, nor does he has to wrestle for the possession given that Dembele and Wanyama are so dominant in the centre. His job has been simplified greatly, same with Kane, Eriksen, and Alli.

What Pochettino has managed is to get the best out of a player; for Son, he's a crackshot with some pace but doesn't have the tools to get past players. So Poch just tells him to keep running behind the lines without the burden of having to cover for the wing backs. He has a very liberal role, basically meaning that he can just do what he likes. This is exactly why he can't recreate his form in the NT stage, given that in other teams, wingers are expected to do a lot more.

 

SHM is basically playing the role that Henry used to play at Juve before Wenger shifted him into a more central/free roaming role. If he wants to take the next step in his progression, he will need to adapt playing centrally. Whether that is possible at Spurs is uncertain.

For now, since he is best at playing the role running between and behind the lines, we need to shift the KNT tactics to best suit his traits. Unfortunately with UliShit in charge with his delusions of grandeur, SHM's worst traits are amplified. Even during the Olympics, he was not played in this role (partially due to the level of talent in central defensive midfielders and fullbacks) and we saw what happened...

 

Well during the Olympics (at least the Honduras game), he should have scored like 5 goals or something. It had nothing to do with his role. He just couldn't score the many chances he had gotten. With his actual form we would have went past Honduras easily (because he would've scored at least one or two from his chances).

Edit: just rewatched the highlights, he had 2 huge chances that he missed poorly and 2 chances that went straight to the keeper. But it felt like he missed more than 5 chances

 

All the team was in a poor form. Basically the same 11 without any good backups. Lucky to survive vs Mexico (thanks to Kwon), but then...

 

Poch would shift him to the centre but he lacks the vision/creativity and the ability to take on players, something that allowed Henry to prosper even as a lone striker where he could pull out goals from anywhere.

Right now Son is more of a one-trick pony, but Poch makes sure that he can't be neutralised by doing a very simple thing. If the full-backs smother him by man-marking, wing backs like Davies would have acres to burst through, meaning that full backs have too much on the plate to deal with.

His role meant that he didn't contribute much either. Like the moment where he was responsible for Honduras' goal, he was trying to play like a conventional winger, feeding the striker, and facing dense defence, which meant that he was completely ineffective.

 

I recognize this situation as one where everybody is happy how he finished on a high note with 21 goals (which is awesome btw), but I think its important to recognize his negatives so people dont get too crazy with their perspectives on him like the one who haphazardly stated Son was world class. He goes on a bad rutt, then this place usually goes negative or radio silent. Truth.

Imo, as long as he's got the bear of inconsistency on his back he'll be at the bottom of the list of 1st tier players. He'll be very good but not elite. And he still has to play much better against the top teams rather than the mid tier and bottom feeders as he's more often than not shown.

I hate to bring up baseball analogies but its so perfect here. Adam Dunn. Dude went donkey kong most seasons with some of the higher HR numbers in the league but that dude struck out seemingly 70% of the time and had a crap BA. Inconsistency killed his reputation.

If Son somehow becomes consistent, Id definitely change my views on him. Unfortunately I can't think of a single case in any sport where this has happened. Its 100% mental.

 

His English has improved a lot.

🗣️ Sonny: "Everyone wanted to have the ball, everyone wanted to play and have fun." #COYS pic.twitter.com/72HFjaHi2q

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 19, 2017

 

I don't know why some people here want Son to leave Tottenham. They just need a "Hazard" or a "Sanchez" and they are in it for the title next season.

Of course, they have to sell the likes of Janssen, Sissoko and Lamela first in order to achieve that.