OPINION
Alan Shearer claimed that Tottenham attacker Heung-min Son was a better player when Harry Kane was not in the team and it’s easy to see why.
The Premier League icon made the claim after Spurs’ 4-3 loss to Manchester City and given how fantastic Son was during that match, the pundit might have a point.
“It seems to make Son a better player when Harry Kane is not in the team as he has to stand up and he did it again tonight,” said Shearer on BBC Radio 5 Live (22:14, Wednesday April 17th).
When Kane was injured earlier in the season and missed a few games as a result, Son wowed so much that you thought he could be a potential Player of the Year contender.
However when the England captain returned to Mauricio Pochettino’s first-team against Burnley in February, Son’s form notably took a dip in the games that followed.
While that could be just a coincidence, that pattern seems to be happening again.
Kane suffered another injury in the 58th minute of the first-leg of Spurs’ quarter-final clash with Man City and once he went off, Son transformed for the better once again.
The 26-year-old ended up scoring a vital goal in that clash and then when deployed against Man City once again on Wednesday, he stole the show for all the right reasons.
With that in mind surely Pochettino has a dilemma.
The Spurs boss knows both players are tremendous talents and he needs to find a way to get the best out of both them when they’re playing alongside each other.
Kane may be touch and go to play again this season, as reported by The Sun, but even if the Spurs boss won’t be able to consider the forward until the 2019/20 campaign, it doesn’t mean the problem is going away.
Given that it’s bit of a mystery while Son struggles to shine as bright when Kane is leading the line, Pochettino is surely set to have a headache regarding the pair when both are fit again based on Shearer’s remarks.