Should Son Heung-min start for Spurs in the Europa League final?

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When your season hinges on one game, you want a fully fit squad. But Tottenham Hotspur travel to Bilbao next week to face Manchester United in the Europa League final shorthanded. Midfielders James Maddison, Lucas Bergvall and Dejan Kulusevski are out injured, and Spurs’ midfield suddenly looks light on creativity and star quality.

One positive for manager Ange Postecoglou, though, was Son Heung-min’s return on Sunday against Crystal Palace after a month out with a foot injury. Yet there’s a case for leaving the South Korean out of Wednesday’s starting line-up, and the arguments go beyond fitness concerns.

With his blistering pace and razor-sharp finishing, Son has been a devastating force in Tottenham’s attack since arriving for £22million ($29.3m) from Bayer Leverkusen in August 2015. Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp listed missing out on Son as “one of the biggest mistakes in my life”.

But Son has not been at his electrifying best this season. He has scored just seven league goals and is on course for his first single-digit tally since his debut season.

Statistically, Son is one of the Premier League’s most clinical finishers. Since the start of the 2018-19 season, he has scored around 25 goals more than expected based on the quality of his chances. That ability to exceed expectations has waned this season, with his strike rate of 0.3 goals per game now broadly in line with his expected return.

The way Postecoglou has used Son helps explain his dip in form. Last season, playing him as an out-and-out centre-forward reignited his goalscoring touch after a turbulent 2022-23 campaign, when Tottenham finished eighth and rattled through three managers in two months following Antonio Conte’s departure in March.

But this season, Son has been moved back to the left of the attack following the arrival of £65m striker Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth. “Obviously we’ve played him down the middle but that’s been needs-based and he’s always done a great job for us,” Postecoglou told reporters in February. “Out wide is where he is more comfortable.”

While the left side has always been Son’s preferred zone, he is operating wider than in previous years. As the touch map below shows, more than half of his touches this season have come near the left touchline.

This wider positioning limits his ability to shoot from dangerous central areas. As the shot maps below illustrate, Son is taking lower-value shots from tighter angles on the left side of the box.

Son’s declining potency might go beyond tactics. Previously, his unerring finishing was complemented by his sharp agility. The way he darted past markers in tight spaces often gave him the time to pick his spot without an onrushing defender closing him down. Postecoglou said, “His ability to beat players, even in tight areas, is elite.”

That penchant for evading pressure has diminished steadily across his Tottenham career. In the 2019-20 season, he completed 54 per cent of take-ons in the final third, but that rate has dropped to 35 per cent. A greater share of his shots are being blocked — 32 per cent, his highest rate across the past seven seasons — suggesting he is finding it harder to shake free of his markers.

In Son’s defence, it is harder to shine in a side as disjointed as Tottenham have been this season. Postecoglou acknowledged as much earlier in the campaign, telling reporters in January: “If you put Sonny in Liverpool’s team, his goalscoring return would be decent. We are a very disrupted team, not playing with fluency.”

Tottenham’s stuttering makes it harder for Son to combine with other creative players in dangerous areas. His most prolific seasons have come with consistent service from top-tier attackers, particularly Harry Kane and Maddison.

Left-back Destiny Udogie, who has just one assist this season, has supplied the most — 23 per cent — of all final-third passes into Son this campaign. That is partly due to Son’s more extreme left-sided positioning, but also reflects the absence of a cohesive, consistently fit attacking unit around him.

When we look at the types of passes Son receives in the final third, it is clear he has always favoured the left side. But the third-most common pattern below is reminiscent of the through balls Kane often played after dropping deep, opening up space for Son, and sliding a pass into his path on the run.

Solanke is a different type of striker, one who focuses on pressing aggressively from the front, as he did to great effect in disrupting Bodo/Glimt’s build-up in the semi-final. But he lacks Kane’s ability to drop deep and dictate play, which Son thrived on during their time together. Instead, Son has picked up Tottenham’s creative slack, laying on nine assists in the league, more than any other player in the squad.

If Postecoglou turns to another option for the final, they won’t bring the same proven pedigree as Son. Mathys Tel, the forward signed on loan from Bayern Munich in January, is the obvious candidate, having started six of the last eight matches during Son’s absence. The 20-year-old is raw and lacks physicality, but his speed, directness, and willingness to take on defenders offer a different dimension. He also works hard out of possession to win the ball back.

Yet, Richarlison was handed the left-sided role in both legs of the Europa League semi-final against Glimt. Having spent most of his career as a centre-forward, he doesn’t naturally possess the attributes to operate out wide. But his physical presence, aerial strength, and ability to hold up the ball could be vital in relieving pressure in such a high-stakes match.

Either option is a calculated gamble, and each comes with its drawbacks. Son not featuring in Tottenham’s biggest game since the 2019 Champions League final against Liverpool feels almost unthinkable. But given his diminished output and limited time to regain full match fitness before next Wednesday’s final, it may be a risk Postecoglou is willing to take.

(Top photo: Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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