OPINION
Many Tottenham fans will fear Lord Alan Sugar is spot-on with his explanation about why attacker Heung-min Son struggled when playing Chelsea on Thursday.
The known Spurs supporter explained that he thought the Blues targeted the 26-year-old during the match and went out of their way to ensure he wasn’t a threat.
“Well y’know thing is we waited for Harry to come back and he was a very a big component in the game last night but I don’t know what has happen, you people are better pundits than me and you watched the game…it seemed to me that Chelsea were everywhere, couldn’t get in their box, every shot we made hit a Chelsea player,” said Sugar on Alan Brazil’s Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (via the radio station’s listen again, 13:44).
“Maybe that’s the tactics, maybe someone somewhere has taken a look at Son and said right let’s concentrate on Son and play him out the game.”
Son has proven himself to be a key player for Mauricio Pochettino’s this season, particularly in recent weeks, but was notably ineffective in the 2-0 loss to Chelsea on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old, who has been involved in 25 of Spurs’ goal this season, was constantly closed down and as a result didn’t seem to have time on the ball in order to influence the game in a positive way.
Chelsea’s tactics were similar to how Newcastle United stopped Son causing problems during their 1-0 loss to Spurs, however on that occasion the attacker got lucky when scoring the winning goal as Magpies goalkeeper Martin Dubravka should have saved his effort.
If teams have become wise to Son’s style of play and how vital he is to Pochettino’s side then it spells trouble.
The 26-year-old attacker doesn’t seem able to cope when teams focus on him at the moment as he doesn’t seem to have any other tricks up his sleeve in order to stop their attempts being successful.
With Tottenham having so many star players, such as Harry Kane or Christian Eriksen, in some games this season Son has flown under the radar and that has seen him given enough freedom to be a match-winner for his side.
Yet it will be a concern for fans if the likes of Chelsea and Spurs’ other Premier League rivals have cracked the code on how to stop Son, as they need him at his best to rack up results in the games that remain.