{"id":543780,"date":"2020-02-17T07:31:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T12:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=543780"},"modified":"2020-02-17T07:31:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T12:31:41","slug":"son-heung-min-flourishing-up-front-for-spurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/02\/17\/son-heung-min-flourishing-up-front-for-spurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Son Heung-min Flourishing Up Front for Tottenham Hotspur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/92e7e919\/Son-Heung-min?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Son Heung-min<\/a> scored a brace on Sunday as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/02\/06\/fa-cup-glory-has-to-be-on-agenda-for-tottenham-hotspur\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> beat <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/01\/09\/why-aston-villas-chief-creator-jack-grealish-is-in-demand\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aston<\/a> Villa 3-2. Son&#8217;s 94th-minute winner secured all three points for Spurs after <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/4fdf1fd9\/Bjorn-Engels?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bjorn Engels<\/a> mis-controlled the ball allowing the South Korean to run on and score in the closing stages.<\/p>\n<p>Son is providing the goals for Spurs in the absence of talisman <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/21a66f6a\/Harry-Kane?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry Kane<\/a>, who is out until late April with a hamstring injury. Jos\u00e9 Mourinho favours either Son or <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/2b622f01\/Lucas-Moura?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Moura<\/a> in the lone striker role but Son is proving to be more effective, as he showed against Villa this weekend.<\/p>\n<h2>Son Heung-min Flourishing in Striker Role<\/h2>\n<h3>Six in the Last Five<\/h3>\n<p>Son has now scored six goals in the last five matches for Spurs and is hitting top form. His threat upfront is causing problems for oppositions defences and helped Spurs turn around their current form. They are now fifth and just one point behind <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/chelsea\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chelsea<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>After the 27-year-old returned from suspension in early January, Spurs have lost just one match in 11 in all competitions and won three consecutive matches, including an excellent 2-0 victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/manchester-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manchester City<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Crucial Goals<\/h3>\n<p>Son&#8217;s contributions are proving to be crucial for Spurs&#8217; improved form in 2020. In the last six games, Son scored the winners against Villa and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/norwich-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Norwich City<\/a>, securing six points for his team.<\/p>\n<p>He also scored the decisive second against City two weeks ago and scored the winning penalty in the FA Cup replay against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/02\/12\/why-southampton-must-offer-shane-long-a-new-contract\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Southampton<\/a> to send Spurs through to the fifth round.<\/p>\n<p>Without his goals, Mourinho&#8217;s side could further off the Champions League places and, with the competition for Europe becoming tighter, Son is proving to be central to Spurs&#8217; success.<\/p>\n<p>Son&#8217;s goal scoring is also providing some goal-scoring relief felt from the absence of <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/21a66f6a\/Harry-Kane?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Harry Kane<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Shooting Regularly<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s no surprise that Son is shooting more than his teammates, providing a regular goal-scoring threat. Against Villa, Son attempted seven shots on goal, six of which were on target. He forced Villa keeper\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e358587b\/Pepe-Reina?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Pepe Reina<\/a>\u00a0into some good saves throughout the game and could have scored four or five by the final whistle.<\/p>\n<p>The South Korean attempted 61 shots overall this season. By comparison, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/2b622f01\/Lucas-Moura?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucas Moura<\/a> has had 37 shots on goal. In the last six games, Son has attempted 19 shots overall, showing how he is becoming the focal point of Spurs&#8217; attacks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"WkrQCCl_QuN1sCIIGtvM4g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1206691739\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'WkrQCCl_QuN1sCIIGtvM4g',sig:'qJ624nDWgcUu9JU0r0xmEyZnF_3f0uAZLMNkLZgSYkA=',w:'594px',h:'403px',items:'1206691739',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Son Heung-min scored a brace on Sunday as Tottenham Hotspur beat Aston Villa 3-2. Son&#8217;s 94th-minute winner secured all three points for Spurs after Bjorn Engels mis-controlled the ball allowing the South Korean to run on and score in the closing stages. Son is providing the goals for Spurs in the absence of talisman Harry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3338,"featured_media":543795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,24],"tags":[4063,264,138,1747,1914,1970,96,136],"class_list":["post-543780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-featured","category-tottenham","tag-2019-20-premier-league","tag-harry-kane","tag-jose-mourinho","tag-lucas-moura","tag-son-heung-min","tag-tottenahm-hotspur","tag-tottenham-hotspur","tag-world-football"],"modified_by":"Nat Goodlad, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}