The 24-year-old did not start Tottenham Hotspur’s latest game.
Craig Burley has questioned Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to omit in-form Son Heung-min from Tottenham Hotspur’s starting lineup on Saturday, speaking to ESPN.
Tottenham drew 1-1 with West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
Nacer Chadli’s 82nd-minute strike looked like being enough for Albion, but Dele Alli rescued a point with an equaliser in the closing stages of normal time for Spurs.
Pochettino’s side dominated the contest for the most part but there was a lack of cutting edge up front perhaps, with Vincent Janssen spearheading the Lilywhites’ attack.
The Argentine manager decided to leave Son – who has five goals from seven games in all competitions – on the bench, though the 24-year-old did earn an 18-minute cameo.
The South Korea had travelled to his home nation as well as Iran over the past 10 days for two World Cup qualifiers, and that may well explain Pochettino’s omission.
But Burley says he would have preferred to see the ex-Bayer Leverkusen forward start for the sake of “continuity”, with that being Tottenham’s first game since they beat Manchester City 2-0 prior to the international break.
He told ESPN: “He didn’t start and he wasn’t the only change Tottenham made for this game, and if it’s injuries I understand, but I don’t get changing a team for the sake of changing it.
“Yes players were on international duty, and yes played have travelled, but if I’m Pochettino I just want to get that continuity back on the field. If it was just team rotation then Pochettino got it wrong.”
With Harry Kane already injured, resting Son a little was certainly the smart option, given just how far he had travelled since Tottenham’s last game.
Tottenham’s Son Heung-min celebrates scoring their first goal with Erik Lamela and Toby Alderweireld
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