Son Heung-min‘s barren spell extended at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
The South Korea international struggled again last night as Spurs lost 2-0 away to Sporting in the Champions League.
Son, who shared a Premier League Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah last season, is now eight games without a goal in all competitions since the 2022-23 campaign began in August.
There isn’t as much reliance on the former Bayer Leverkusen attacker this season, with Dejan Kulusevski boasting six months of English football under his belt now and constantly improving, and Richarlison – a similar player – joining Tottenham in a £60 million record deal this past summer.
However, Craig Burley has told ESPN that an on-form Son is still far better than either of those two Antonio Conte additions.
He said: “Heung-Min Son was poor again, just didn’t play really well and is out of form. He [Conte] desperately needs him to get back [to form]. I know it’s better than last year because he has replacements.
“Kulusevski is on the bench, he can play and him and Richarlison can play behind Kane, Lucas Moura can play and they have options. But none of those options are up to the standard of an on-form Heung-Min Son.”
It’s a fair point by the Scottish pundit, it has to be said.
On song, Son is one of the best players in the entire Premier League and although Richarlison and Kulusevski are blossoming into important players for Conte, their importance doesn’t outweigh that of their teammate at the moment.
Fortunately for Son, the adage ‘class is permanent’ continues to ring true and he will undeniably get his groove back eventually.
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