Mauricio Pochettino has heaped praise on Heung-Min Son, suggesting the attacker struggled in his first season at the club because he was signed late in the transfer window.
Son has been in terrific form this season, but Pochettino was keen to point out it wasn’t always plain sailing for the Korean at Tottenham.
“He arrived again in the last days [of the summer transfer window in 2015], you remember?” the Spurs boss asked reporters. “He started playing at Leverkusen, he had a problem with his manager, then there was the opportunity to sign him and he arrived without any pre-season with us.
“Always it’s tough for players who arrive at the last moment. It’s a very tough period to adapt and build confidence, and for the team it’s difficult too because you don’t know [them].
“After two months of training and all the pre-season, you start the Premier League and one new player arrives who needs to do everything with you, and the team is in a different dynamic.
“That’s why I said to you a few weeks ago that we need to try to sign before, to be clever, because if not we’re going to miss some period of adaptation – and then if the team is doing well, how do you put a player in if another is doing well? It’s not the same possibility to fight for the same place with another team-mate.
“It’s like [Moussa] Sissoko, who this summer was available from day one and had the possibility to show and fight for his place and then to be important in the team. That’s the reality and why Sonny is now much better.” (Quotes via Yahoo!.)
How can he compare the two? Sissoko will never be half the player Sonny is!
Come on , give the charging bull some slack! He can cause a different type of problems for the oppositions.
Fans hardly ever show patience with players – encouraged by pundits who, despite being ex-players, often appear not to know much about the current teams and the need for thought. It must drive managers mad. As for Son; he’s been a great signing – skilful, quick, good finisher, enthusiastic, enjoys it. What holds him back sometimes is that he has games when he loses the ball too easily and sometimes fails with easy chances while slamming home difficult ones. Sissoko has generally done well this season; offers strength deep in midfield and great counterattack power; he always appears diligent and aware of his team responsibilities too – very professional. But he’s not a great technician and not a good finisher (luckily we have Kane!), which is why Spurs fans are critical. They are too critical in fact, but credit to him, it doesn’t look as though it affects him too much.