“Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min got angry with one of his teammates after the draw against West Ham,” British media outlet “The Spurs News” reported on the 4th (Korea Standard Time).
Tottenham won a 1-1 draw against West Ham United in the 31st round of the 2023-24 Premier League at the Olympic Stadium in London, England on the 3rd.
Brennan Johnson’s first goal in the fifth minute gave Tottenham the lead, but Kurt Zouma an equalizer in the 19th minute corner kick of the first half. Since then, both teams have failed to score additional points, sharing one point. After failing to secure a win, Tottenham maintained 57 points (17 wins, six draws, seven losses), failing to overtake Aston Villa (59 points) in the fourth place, and maintaining its fifth place.
In the match against West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min started as a forward striker and played full 90 minutes. Son displayed impactful play at the frontier by recording two shots and three chances creation until the whistle blew at the end of the match, but failed to score offensive points and thus failed to lead his team to victory.
Although the match ended in a draw, the match against West Ham was of special significance to Son. This is because it was the 400th game since joining Tottenham in August 2015.
After the game, Tottenham congratulated Son Heung-min on his achievement of the milestone, saying on the club’s SNS, “Our Captain Sonny became the 14th player in Tottenham’s history to play 400 games.”
Son Heung-min stepped out on the Premier League stage in 2015 when he moved from Bayer Leverkusen, a top-ranked club in the German Bundesliga, to Tottenham. At that time, Tottenham paid 30 million euros (about 42.9 billion won) for Son Heung-min’s transfer fee, and some expressed concern that he might have invested too much money in an Asian player, but Son Heung-min became one of the most successful recruits in Tottenham’s history.
As Son has grown every season, he has become a legend among Tottenham beyond key players. In the 2021-22 season, he became the first Asian player to top the Premier League scoring position by scoring 23 goals in the league, and became a world class striker in name and reality.
Having had a sluggish year last season with only 10 goals in the league due to orbital fracture and sports hernia, Son has successfully revived this season. So far, Son has once again become one of the best strikers in the Premier League, scoring 15 goals and eight assists this season.
In particular, in the away match of Luton Town in the 30th round, Son scored the winning goal in the 41st minute of the second half, winning 2-1 and achieving his 160th career goal for Tottenham. The only Tottenham players who have scored more goals than Son are Martin Chivers (174 goals), Bobby Smith (208 goals), Jimmy Greaves (266 goals), and Harry Kane (280 goals), who is currently playing for Bayern Munich.
Son Heung-min, who achieved the milestone of achieving his 160th career goal, has since made another important milestone in his soccer life through 400 appearances at Tottenham.
While Son Heung-min had a memorable day in his soccer life, a media outlet drew attention by claiming that his Tottenham teammate made Son Heung-min annoyed. The person who upset Son Heung-min claimed by the media was Dejan Kulusevski.
Kulusevski was replaced by James Maddison in the 25th minute of the second half with a 1-1 score against West Ham, but failed to change the outcome of the game as he failed to show any performance.
According to the soccer statistics media “Sofascore,” Kulusevski performed poorly with 21 ball touches, an 82% pass success rate (9/11), two dribbles allowed, and five turnovers for about 20 minutes.
The media also pointed out, “After the game, Tottenham captain Son Heung-min was clearly not impressed by Dejan Kulusevski,” adding, “Kulusevski played for about 20 minutes but failed to create anything in terms of aggression.”
“After the whistle at the end of the game, Son Heung-min sat on the floor, stirred his arm while saying something to Kulusevski, hit the floor hard, and got up from his seat and walked away,” he added.
A video posted on SNS after the game also showed Son Heung-min complaining to Kulusevski with hesitation on the floor, so many speculated that Son Heung-min was disappointed with Kulusevski, who came out as a substitute and showed below expectations.
Ahead of the 2023-24 season, Tottenham permanently signed Swedish winger Kulusevski. Kulusevski left Juventus during the winter transfer window in January 2022 to sign a loan deal with Tottenham for 18 months.
Since joining Tottenham, Kulusevski has been active in 18 games in the second half of the 2022-23 season, scoring five goals and eight assists, but last season he only scored two goals and eight assists in 27 games due to a calf injury. Tottenham decided to pay 30 million euros (about 42 billion won) to recruit Kulusevski permanently because of his good performance before the injury.
However, Kulusevsky’s performance this season was disappointing. Kulusevsky, who has six goals and three assists in 31 matches in all competitions so far, has not shown bad performance, but he has posted only two offensive points (one goal and one assist) in the second half of this season.
The media also said, “It is a difficult time for Kulusevski, who is receiving 110,000 pounds (about 188 million won) every week,” adding, “It got worse especially as Brennan Johnson and Timo Werner contributed to the goal from the side.”
In fact, German striker Werner, who was hired on loan during the winter transfer market in January, has two goals and three assists since moving to Tottenham, and Johnson also scored four goals and three assists in 2024, scoring more offensive points than Kulusevski.
Kulusevski, who is going through a sluggish period, also came out as a substitute against West Ham, but he was annoyed by Son Heung-min as he failed to become a game changer.
BY: 스포츠토토핫