He is so important… Mauricio Pochettino reacts to Son Heung-min’s performance against Dortmund

Follow us on Google Discover

Tottenham Hotspur beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on Tuesday night.

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Mauricio Pochettino

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Football.London that he didn’t start Son Heung-min against Borussia Dortmund just because of his record against the Bundesliga side.

Spurs travelled to Germany on Tuesday night to take on Dortmund, just days after losing 2-0 to Arsenal in Saturday’s North London derby, in search of an immediate response.

Despite having already qualified for the next round of the Champions League, Tottenham named a full-strength side against Dortmund, but fell behind in the first half to a smart finish Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from a superb flick by Andriy Yarmolenko.

Spurs looked to be heading to a first defeat of this season’s Champions League, but came out reinvigorated after the break, and hit back with a great finish from Harry Kane.

After setting up Kane’s equaliser, Dele Alli then set up Son Heung-min for the winner, with the South Korean bending home a superb strike to put Spurs 2-1 up – and that’s how it finished.

With 13 points from five games, Spurs have enjoyed a stunning Champions League campaign so far this term, and Pochettino’s decision to start Son was certainly justified.

The 25-year-old wide man played just 15 minutes against Arsenal on Saturday, and his freshness came through as he scored the all-important winner at Signal Iduna Park.

Son’s record against Dortmund – even from his time in Germany with Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen – was brought up after the final whistle, but Pochettino told Football.London that his prior record didn’t factor into his selection, before starting Son is ‘so important’ to Spurs, despite mostly playing a bit-part role this term.

“No,” said Pochettino. “I never think about what happened in the past. We need to rotate some players, we need to give games to some players and for the squad to be competitive every three days. Son is so important for us and will be important for us,” he added.