The Second Breakout: Son Heung-Min
The first entry in our series analyzing how star players have been able to raise their game another level this season
The numbers: After sixteen matches, Son is averaging 1.14 goals + assists per 90 minutes. That mark is significantly higher than the 0.76 he averaged last season and also exceeds his previous best of 0.87 from 2016–2017. Son is just two goals away from matching his highest-ever league tally (14) and, with five assists, also stands a decent chance of matching or exceeding the 10 he registered last campaign.
What’s behind it: Much has been made of Harry Kane’s development into a world-class playmaker and the telekinetic understanding he’s developed with Son, both of which have aided Son’s prolific goal return this season, but there are several additional factors at play.
For one, Son’s role in the Spurs attack has changed significantly from last season. While still nominally a left-winger on the team sheet, his heatmap shows him taking up relatively fewer positions along the touchline and more in the left channel. As these maps illustrate, Son is essentially playing as an inside-left forward (and occasional center-forward, as we’ll see on video) rather than as a wide midfielder.
Son’s dribbling statistics also show that he is spending less time building Spurs’ attacks as his focus has shifted from progressing the ball and creating chances to finishing them. Son is carrying the ball forward an average of 93.7 yards per 90 minutes, down significantly from 148.5 yards per 90 last season, and is attempting far fewer take-ons as well: just 1.5 attempted dribbles per 90, down from 4.2 last season. In a congested season that has been extremely taxing for players, Jose Mourinho appears to be managing Son’s workload by asking him to do less on the ball.
At the same time, Son is very active making runs without the ball — and this brings us to perhaps the biggest factor behind his increased goal output. Whereas Son only scored one of his 10 league goals last season from a situation where he was played in one-on-one against the keeper, he’s netted six such breakaway goals in the league thus far.
Each of Son’s four goals against Southampton in Matchweek 2 came from him latching on to balls played behind the defense by Kane, as Son continually made runs in behind to exploit Southampton’s high defensive line with his pace.
For Son’s first, he and Kane have completely swapped positions; that’s Kane on the left, playing an angled ball in behind for Son to run onto from a central position and finish.
Son’s second comes when Kane drops deep to collect the ball and slips his strike partner through on goal; Son is again further to the right than Kane, this time making a run down the inside-right channel.
Son completes his hat-trick in another situation where Kane has come deep. Son again takes up a position in the middle of the pitch, making a vertical run through the center circle, and Kane finds him with a ball over the top.
For the fourth, Son has again drifted into a central area and is able to ghost in behind because Southampton’s defense is caught watching Kane on the right wing.
Son’s shooting statistics this season further demonstrate how he is taking up positions more typical of a center forward and being more efficient in his play.
Son is averaging an entire shot less per match than last season (1.9, down from 2.9) but is hitting the target with 60.7% of his shots — a significant increase from the 48.1% he recorded last season. This is likely due in large part to where he is shooting from; his average shooting distance (15.0 yards) is a yard and a half closer than last season (16.5), and he’s already shot and scored more times from inside the six-yard box (three goals from five shots) than he did all of last season (two goals from four shots).
Son has always been an excellent finisher, consistently outperforming his xG year after year, and this season has been absolutely clinical as his 12 league goals have come from only 5.3 xG.
Just as Kane’s conversion into a playmaking “nine and a half” is allowing Spurs to get the most out of the Englishman’s range of talents, Son’s development from a left-winger into an inside-left forward is helping to maximize the South Korean’s elite pace and lethality in front of goal.
