Cristian Stellini explains reason to bench Tottenham Hotspur superstar Son Heung-min in West Ham win
Tottenham Hotspur assistant manager Cristian Stellini fielded a Spurs team sans Son Heung-min when we faced West Ham United on Sunday in north London.
Dropping the South Korean international from the starting XI in an important game is unthinkable for many. Manager Antonio Conte did it just once this season.
It came in our 6-2 win against Leicester City in the Premier League last year, when the former Bayer Leverkusen winger came off the bench to score a hat-trick One will recall he was struggling for form back then quite evidently.
He has recently come under the scanner for failing to score or assist as regularly as fans would expect him to. Before the game against West Ham United, Son managed to score and assist just one goal each in his last 12 Premier League games.
The 30-year-old was benched by Stellini and once again, he came on to score and help his team win a league game this season. Perhaps this is the trick to rekindle his form.
After the game, Stellini explained that the decision to drop Son to the bench was due to fitness reasons. He said (h/t Football.London):
“…after the World Cup, sometimes it happen that the player are not fit 100 per cent. In that moment you have to take a decision and it is difficult with a player like Sonny to drop them, but you have to do it because we have a lot of matches.
“The risk is you lose a player for a long time and we don’t want to do it. We want to use Sonny in the right way.”
One thing is becoming clear, Son may not be as untouchable as we thought he was – a status perhaps now only reserved for the great Harry Kane. A fit Richarlison has the capability to oust the likes of Dejan Kulusevski and Son from the starting XI and vice versa.
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Arnaut Danjuma is also in the mix, at least until the summer. It’s not a bad thing to have so much quality, especially if it can spur the likes of Son to rekindle their seemingly lost form.
