Brendan Rodgers has hailed Son Heung-min as ‘top-class’ after he scored a hat-trick during Tottenham’s 6-2 win over Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday, as he told Sky Sports.
Problem with form? What form? That was some answer to the critics from Tottenham’s flying forward, who scored a 13-minute hat-trick from the substitutes bench.
Before the game, there was a lot of talk about Son’s form going into the game – after winning the Golden Boot last season, he was yet to get off the mark during this current campaign.
With Dejan Kulusevski and summer signing Richarlison making impressive starts to the campaign, it meant that Antonio Conte had some big calls to make.
And after Spurs suffered their opening defeat of the campaign against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League in midweek, he opted to drop Son to the bench for the visit of bottom-of-the-table Leicester.
Well, Conte won’t be doing that again, or perhaps he will, because that hat-trick was ruthless and of high, high quality, as even Rodgers, in the opposite dugout, could admit.
“Four goals, if you look at the two set-pieces, we need to be better individually,” said Rodgers.
“Then a couple of mistakes when we gave the ball away. If you do that, against top-class players, then you will see what Son can do. He scored two absolutely outstanding goals.”
HAS SON’S HAT-TRICK DOWNED RODGERS?
There was a lot of pressure on Rodgers going into yesterday’s game, with Leicester fans wanting the Northern Irishman out of the door.
That was before they conceded five+ – for the second game running – which just sums up the mood and headspace they are in.
As Tottenham proved yesterday, the Midlands outfit have some serious, serious issues with defending set-plays.
And, you do wonder if Son had actually started the game, if he would have even added more than just the three to his name.
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