Tottenham’s trip to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday coincides with seven years since Son Heung-min’s debut – and rarely since those early days in north London has his place looked under threat.
However, the South Korean yet to score this season and ahead of Spurs’ second Champions League Group D clash, Antonio Conte admitted he will consider rotating his forwards amid Son’s goal drought.
Conceding it was “especially difficult to drop one of these players” in attack, Conte warned: “You have to change old habits, otherwise it means you want to stay in balance and you don’t want to have ambition”.
“For this reason all the players have to accept the rotation especially up front,” he added.
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Son has been operating on the left behind Harry Kane, with either Richarlison or Dejan Kulusevski on the right, but has drifted into a more central role behind Kane.
That offers some hope that, even if Spurs’ two recent additions start on either side of the England captain, Conte may be able to incorporate them all going forward, in the way Dele Alli, Son, Christian Eriksen and Kane teamed up with Alli as a playmaker. Jose Mourinho faced the same conundrum when Gareth Bale arrived on loan, but managed on occasion to utilise the Welshman in the same starting XI as Son, Kane and Lucas Moura.
As early as April, Conte had reiterated his plans to sign another No 10, but with no particular change to the existing status quo in mind. A month later, Son won the Golden Boot – and long before that, Conte had suggested it would be “crazy” to drop him.
Yet the Spurs boss has also said that ahead of the fixture pile-up preceding the winter World Cup, it would be impossible to field his strongest side in all the games, hinting at a rest for Kane in particular.
Son’s form has hastened that decision along, as has the emergence of Richarlison as a credible alternative, impressing against Fulham before scoring his first two goals for the club in the 2-0 win over Marseille.
When addressing his different options, Conte pointed out that Richarlison “is more of a striker than Deki [Kulusevski], but at the same time he can play in Son’s position, in Harry Kane’s position and Deki’s position”.
Had the Premier League match against Manchester City gone ahead on Saturday – it was postponed following the Queen’s death – Conte would have had a further headache, as Son’s record against the champions is enviable. In 14 appearances, he has scored seven goals, including memorable winners in the 2019 Champions League quarter-final first leg and on the opening day of the 2021-22 season.
Despite his dip in form, he still has a higher shooting accuracy than Kulusevski and Richarlison, though the latter two have started fewer games.
With only Lucas Moura an injury doubt, the City postponement at least means Spurs are fresh having not played since Wednesday.
The real test of Conte’s thinking may come against Leicester, now that the Premier League have confirmed Saturday’s game will go ahead as planned despite a number of other postponements. Given the Foxes’ frailties from set pieces, Richarlison’s aerial threat comes into contention – and there is an argument that the Brazilian has made himself undroppable. The same won’t be said of Son – but it will be no cause for alarm if he drops to the bench in Portugal.
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