Tottenham Hotspur head into this evening’s Premier League meeting with Fulham in an uninspired run of form, with Antonio Conte‘s side having lost five of their last eight top-flight fixtures, including their two most recent outings against Arsenal and Manchester City respectively.
As such, should the 53-year-old manager wish to give his outfit any hope of finishing in the top four come the end of the season, it would appear absolutely essential for Spurs to pick up a much-needed three points at Craven Cottage this evening.
However, with Marco Silva’s newly-promoted side having highly impressed since their return to the Premier League – currently sitting just two points behind Tottenham in 7th – the Italian must ensure that he gets his team selection spot on in west London tonight.
And, one player who looks a prime candidate to be dropped following his latest showing against Manchester City is Son Heung-min – the 30-year-old winger who has, so far this season, fallen well short of the standards he set last time out.
Indeed, after finishing the 2021/22 campaign as the Premier League’s joint top goalscorer, the £47m-rated flanker has so far hit the back of the net just four times this term, with only one of these goals coming over his last 11 outings in the league.
The £190k-per-week forward was largely toothless once again in the 4-2 defeat to City last Thursday, with the South Korea international enjoying just 29 touches of the ball – the fewest of Conte’s starting XI – taking just one shot at Ederson’s goal – which failed to hit the target – making no key passes and being unsuccessful with his one attempted dribble.
Furthermore, the 30-year-old also managed to win just one of his seven duels, lost possession of the ball on five separate occasions and was beaten by an opponent once – with these metrics seeing the player who talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy once labelled “toothless” average an extremely disappointing Sofascore match rating of just 6.5 for his efforts on the night.
As such, considering the fact that Spurs currently have a £60m left-winger sitting on the bench in Richarlison, it would appear extremely wise for Conte to finally axe Son from his starting XI against Fulham this evening, as the 108-cap international has been well and truly “woeful” – in the words of talkSPORT’s Lianne Sanderson – in recent weeks.
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