Tottenham lost to West Ham United 1-2 in the 15th round of the 2023-24 season Premier League (PL) held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Due to the defeat, Tottenham ranked fifth with 27 points.

After the match, England’s Football London gave Son four rating points, saying, “I could hardly see it. I felt like I was limping when I came out in the second half.” It was a criticism that Son did not show anything in Tottenham’s attack. Son Heung-min received the lowest score among the starting players, along with Destiny Udodge, Dejan Kulusevski, Brennan Johnson, and Pierre-Emile Hoivier.

The U.K.’s Evening Standard also said, “It was quiet compared to Son’s high standards. He seemed shocked when he was replaced. The media in question also gave Udoji and Son Heung-min the same ratings, which provided an excuse for the come-from-behind goal. 파워볼게임

England’s “The Athlete” unveiled Tottenham’s pass map against West Ham after the match. When Son was at the forefront of the game, no player except Giovanni Lo Celso received a smooth pass. Son touched the ball 51 times in the match, but during the 67 minutes he played as the frontier striker, he touched the ball only 29 times. When Hishal Song came in, he moved to the left and received the ball 22 times in 17 minutes before being replaced. In other words, he felt very lonely as a striker.

Tottenham’s problems, which were pointed out in The Athletic, were their calmness in front of the goalpost, stability in the back, and creativity and control in the midfield. Son Heung-min pointed out the same problem after the match. “We didn’t do well in the second half. We should have finished them no matter what West Ham showed us. Whatever happened, we had to. We were too soft in the last play. We didn’t even see any player show good penetration. We have to play ruthlessly,” he said, ordering players to finish more firmly.

Even in the match on the day, passes were not delivered even if Son showed good movements, and even if passes were inaccurate in many cases. The fact that a striker caught the ball 51 times and only had one shot shows that he failed to make the most of the striker. In the meantime, Son made key pass twice. The statistics on the expected help value also came out to be 0.43, but his teammates failed to respond to his good pass again this time. It would be hard to say that Son’s performance was the worst in his team.

Not only Lo Celso, who is filling James Madison’s vacancy relatively well, but also Kulusevski, Johnson and Hisalisson need to be more helpful to Son. Son cannot do everything by himself.