Why is Heung-Min Son struggling this season for Tottenham Hotspur? – scout report

The new Premier League season is only four matches old but already narratives are being formed around various teams. In some cases, those narratives are disproved almost as quickly as they are formed. Look, for example, at the turnaround at Old Trafford after Manchester United lost to Brighton and then Brentford only to outplay and outfight Liverpool at home.

Speaking of Liverpool, there were some around the footballing ecosystem who were voicing the opinion that Jurgen Klopp was under pressure after a slow start to their season. This narrative does not look as good after the 9-0 humbling that Liverpool handed out to Bournemouth at Anfield last weekend.

Another narrative currently doing the rounds surrounds Tottenham Hotspurs South Korean international forward Heung-Min Son. So far this season, in four league games, the South Korean forward has registered just one assist and zero goals. This is after a 2021/22 season when Son was so effective that he almost eclipsed the Engish international captain Harry Kane as the key attacking player for Spurs.

Now, bear in mind that the club spent a reported ??52.2M to sign the Brazilian international forward Richarlison to the club from Everton so there is a sense that Spurs may be forced to consider dropping Son to the bench, at least for the short-term. But would this be the right choice at this point though?

While there is no doubt that Son has not had the impact so far this season that we may have expected, that is not to say that he has suddenly become a bad player. Indeed, there are some around the club who feel that Son is feeling the effects of a difficult pre-season as the club looked to cash in on his popularity with a tour of South Korea. During that tour, the demands on Sons time were constant while other players were allowed to work in training in the background all eyes were on the South Korean forward.

It is also worth pointing out at this point, however, that Sons actual underlying performances so far this season have not been as bad as you might expect given the talk around his place in the team. Lets take a minute as an example to consider his xG from a game-to-game basis so far:

1. Vs Southampton  0.85
2. Vs Chelsea  0.28
3. Vs Wolves  0.69
4. Vs Nottingham Forest  0.24

That gives Son a total xG so far this season of 2.06. Now, for analysis, one absolutely cannot use xG as a rock-solid example that a player is performing well but it is an indicator of what we should perhaps have expected so far this season from Son. A return of 2 goals and 1 assist from four matches would, of course, be much easier on the eye for Spurs fans. We also have to acknowledge that traditionally, it is the club captain and talisman Harry Kane who starts the season slowly before reestablishing himself from the end of August onwards.

In this tactical analysis article, which will be completed in the form of a scout report, we will examine whether there is cause for Spurs to be concerned at this point.

How did Son look in the 2021/22 season?

The above pizza chart shows Sons data across the 2021/22 Premier League season with all of the data converted into percentile data which allows us to compare Sons performances as compared to all other players in the Premier League.

Immediately, it is clear that Son was outstanding as a purely attacking player. Previously in his career, at Bayer Leverkusen and then at Spurs, he was perhaps more of a threat from a chance creation point of view but last season saw him develop as a pure goalscorer. Positionally, he would still generally start from the left of the attack but his positioning when the ball was in play was very much central.

Last season he finished in the 95th per