Has Graeme Souness hinted that he wouldn’t start Son Heung-Min for Tottenham Hotspur tonight?
Graeme Souness has told The Evening Standard that he would play Jan Vertonghen on the left-hand side of Tottenham Hotspur’s defence in their Champions League trip to Real Madrid tonight.
Tottenham are in the Spanish capital gearing up for a huge clash as Spurs go in search of a third successive win in the competition after brushing aside APOEL and Borussia Dortmund in the previous two matchdays.
Left-back Danny Rose made the trip to Madrid despite not playing since January because of injury, and Mauricio Pochettino, who is already without Ben Davies, confirmed that he’ll be on the bench.
But who starts?
Vertonghen played there in the 1-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday as Pochettino reverted to a 4-2-3-1 system, though Son Heung-Min – who started left wing on the weekend, to little effect – has been deployed as a left wing-back for Tottenham already this season and he is a candidate to operate there again if the Argentine manager uses a 3-4-2-1 formation.
But Souness has claimed to The Evening Standard that he would rather see the Belgian defender take up that role rather than a “would-be striker as a wing-back” – a possible hint that he does not want to see Son play there.
“It might not be where Vertonghen wants to play, but I would rather that than play a would-be striker as a wing-back, which is not an ideal situation going to the Bernabeu,” he said.
“Vertonghen is a very solid operator. He is left footed and I think that would be an obvious one.”
The Scot’s words read like a reference to the former Bayer Leverkusen man, a potential striking option who has not covered himself in glory at wing-back this season, but it remains to be seen what Pochettino does.
He has plenty of options, but very few good ones in terms of left-back or left wing-back.
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