Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has admitted that he has no plans to drop Son Heung-min any time soon, believing such a thing would be ‘crazy’.
Tottenham are back in Premier League action tonight as they travel to take on Brighton and Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.
Conte’s men have been ridiculously inconsistent of late, looking superb one game and then completely rudderless the next.
A trip to a woefully out-of-form Brighton side offers a chance for Tottenham to get back to winning ways, even if sustaining that is the real problem.
Conte may face some selection dilemmas for tonight’s game, and we have already pondered whether the Italian would consider benching Son Heung-min.
Son hasn’t been at his absolute best of late and the way he faded against Manchester United suggested that he is maybe a little tired.
Son, £22million signing from Bayer Leverkusen in 2015, always puts himself through the wringer for Tottenham, playing a huge amount of minutes across various competitions.
The South Korean star didn’t look himself against Middlesbrough either and seems to be trying to play his way back into top form.
Still, some think that a game or two on the bench would just allow Son to recharge his batteries and get himself fully ready for the run-in.
Conte has now been asked about the subject, but the Italian thinks the mere notion of leaving a player of Son’s quality on the bench is ‘crazy’.
Conte called Son an ‘important player’ and one who can change the game at any moment – even when seemingly out on his feet.
The Tottenham boss is happy with Son’s performances, believing he is playing well even if the goals and assists aren’t coming with great regularity.
We would therefore expect Son to start tonight, hopefully getting back to his best in The Tottenham attack.
“For me, Sonny is an important player,” said Conte. “A player who can move a result in the end. It can happen that a player can be in not the best form or a period that he’s not playing so well, because we’re talking a player who plays every game, but for me, he is playing well and that doesn’t depend if a player scores a goal or not.”
“For me, it’s about their performance totally. Sonny is a player in my thoughts and in my plan and that’s also for his commitment. So he has to start. I don’t have an idea to drop him. Honestly, no. It doesn’t happen. I’m not crazy to do something like this,” he added.
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