Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham Hotspur), who proved the “captain’s dignity,” even captured the heart of the former Tottenham manager.
Britain’s ‘HITC’ said on the 27th (Korea Standard Time), “Team Sherwood loves Tottenham star Son Heung-min’s ‘aggression’ under coach Engie Postecoglou.”
Tottenham reported its first win of the season by winning 4-0 against Everton in the second round of the 2024-2025 Premier League (PL) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on the 25th. Captain Son Heung-min scored multiple goals, and Christian Romero and Yves Bissouma added one goal each.
Son played full time and displayed perfect performance. At the 25th minute of the first half, when his team was leading 1-0, he earnestly pressured England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to score an additional goal. Even at the counterattack at the 32nd minute, he received a pass following van der Ben’s crazy run, and scored a point for his victory by accurately shooting his left foot into the net.
Man of the match (MOTM) was also Son’s responsibility. Son was named the best player of the match, garnering 65.8 percent of the vote in fan voting.
At the same time, Son rose to 21st in PL history. With two more goals, Son has 122 overall in PL, beating out “Liverpool’s eternal captain” Steven Gerrard (120 goals) and Romelu Lukaku (121 goals). Just one more goal will match Dwight Yorke and Raheem Sterling (123 goals).
Son also swept the best 11 players in the second round. Not only did he win the PL official title by Alan Shearer, but he also won the position of left-handed striker in the “BBC” title by Troy Deeney.
“He was a central striker in the absence of Dominic Solanke, who scored the most goals (260 goals) in the history of the PL. He waded through Everton’s defense and scored twice.” Deeney also said, “He was the best player on the field. He started from the center and moved to the left, and scored two goals. He constantly threatened his opponents. He seems to be enjoying the challenge of becoming a substitute for Harry Kane.”
The same was true of soccer statistics media. Son swept all of Lee Ju’s teams including Sofa Score, Whoscored Dotcom, and Footmob. Son received high scores of 8.9 points based on sofa score, 9.05 points based on Huscored dotcom, and 9.0 points based on footmob.
Sherwood, a former Tottenham manager, also appeared to be deeply in love with Son. “As you know, Tottenham puts pressure on front-line players first. But no one is as good as Son,” he said in an appearance at “Premier League Productions.” He applauded Son’s sincere pressure.
In fact, Son Heung-min was selected as the world’s hardest defensive striker by the International Sports Research Center (CIES) in May. He received a perfect score of 100 in the defense barrier index and 88.6 in the pressure index, ranking first overall. It is an indicator of how much role Son Heung-min plays besides scoring. 안전놀이터
Sherwood also stressed, “Look at Son’s aggression. Pickford needed to know he didn’t have time to take the ball off his feet like that. He paid a fair price. And Son cut it off. It was a really poor play by Pickford.”
HITC also said, “Tottenham players run at 100 miles per hour. They never take their foot off the accelerator,” adding, “Tottenham was the best against Everton. It could be more so, but the representative player of Tottenham’s soccer was Son Heung-min wearing the captain’s armband.”
Son Heung-min’s multi-goal against Everton was more refreshing because of the forced criticism that appeared in the opening game. Son Heung-min was under intense saturation after the promotion team Leicester City on the 20th. He started as a left-side striker and played until extra time in the second half, but he did not perform much. Tottenham drew 1-1 with Leicester.
British media pointed the arrow at Son. Criticisms such as “I felt arrogant,” “I saw the opponent too easily,” and “I was not good enough as a captain.” “Football 365” even pushed Son to the bench and asked him to use Wilson O’Donbert, a freshman born in 2004, as a starter.
The media claimed that Son should be on sale even before the season opened, adding that Son is not eligible to start against all other teams anymore. The sentence “Tottenham should exclude Son but start Odover” would have sounded crazy just a week ago. He should admit it now.
But Son was not swayed and said, “I’m still not a Tottenham legend. I once said I wanted to win with Tottenham. Then I will be called a legend and I will be very happy.” And he immediately showed his status as an ace in the second round against Everton, keeping his mouth shut.
