Dele Alli, Christian Eriksen, Heung-min Son and Harry Kane are a well-oiled machine that can break into even the most heavily fortified defences.
The quartet find each other blindly with one destination: Kane, the man who scores in the blink of an eye.
It has always seemed that one radar in the machine was easier to change than the others, though: Heung-Min Son.
With his vivacious running actions, work ethic and smile, he quickly conquered the hearts of the fans.
However, his performances became irregular as he traded brilliant games with unlucky ones, and classy touches with clumsy passes.
It appeared he was missing a small piece of genius to be considered as important as Spurs’ other three attacking protagonists.
Son fed this status at the beginning of the season.
Winning the Asian Games released him of his military duty. Smiling he quoted it was “the most beautiful day of his life”.
But on the pitch, we couldn’t see this liberated soul. He wasn’t the confident winger or the playful attacker.
On the contrary, he seemed to suffer from decompression and some fatigue.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t a big surprise or an illogical issue after his heavy summer program.
His crisis peaked painfully against Dutch side PSV Eindhoven at the end of October.
The ever-active Son was unable to create any scoring opportunities for himself or for his teammates.
He completed hardly any successful, decisive or key passes, and picked up his teammates’ positions too late.
Many considered him to be a little short of his usual complete self.
Favourite Of Pochettino
But Heung-min Son did what he always did.
He stood up and grew into a better version of himself. He shook off his dip in form and, in November and December, was just brilliant.
Did any other player reduce the Chelsea defenders to statues with one epic run?
Who flattened out Everton, scoring twice and assisting?
It resulted in a nomination for Player of the Month, and lots of praise from a Portuguese manager leaving Manchester: “Every team would be happy having a Son in his squad.”
Mourinho was a little too late to realise. Mauricio Pochettino has known for years that Son is Tottenham’s latest unsung attacker in his 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 diamond-system (the latter in which Son is a striker).
When the most expensive Asian player ever wanted to return to Germany after his first season, Pochettino managed to keep him in London.
Even if Son was benched a lot more than he liked, his dedication, his versatility and discipline contribute made him a very important piece in his manager’s masterplan.
Today, this is true even more than ever.
Son’s Unique Role
With his pace, timing and technical skills Son threatens defences.
The Spurs number seven is Tottenham’s most important weapon in the counter-attack with the opponent’s defensive line in a high or medium press.
Kane drops back to the attacking midfielder spot.
By asking for the ball deeper he gives the defenders two options to skip the midfield: play an early ball to himself, or launch Son into the channels.
Both are efficients option for Spurs, with the excellent passing technique of Alderweireld and Trippier.
Son anticipates and runs the channels, almost always cutting towards the centre and beating his opponent with pace.
Hard to stop in his directness, he arrives within seconds in a one-to-one situation with the goalkeeper.
When Tottenham play the ball long, Son is an attack on his own. If he doesn’t score, his teammates are still in position to win second balls.
