Son Heung-min is expected to come out in the second half even if he plays for Southampton.
Tottenham will play Southampton in the 31st round of the English Premier League (EPL) in the 2024-2025 season at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England on the 6th (Korea Standard Time). Tottenham currently sit 15th in the league with 34 points. Southampton are 20th in the league.
Ahead of this match, England's The Standard predicted Tottenham's starting list for the match against Southampton. The media saw that Son Heung-min would not start. Guglielmo Vicario, Pedro Porro, Christian Romero, Ben Davies, Destiny Udoghi, Lucas Beribal, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pepe Matar Sarr, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke and Wilson O'Dober expected to step up.
Son Heung-min will not miss the game at all, but some say he is unlikely to play as a starter to do his best for the UEFA Europa League (UEL) game during the week.
In fact, Tottenham's league performance has already been broken beyond recovery. It is the same ranking as the 1993-1994 season, when the EPL recorded its worst performance since the opening of the EPL. In order to play in the European competition next season, they must compete at least in the top seven. The score gap with the 7th place is already 14 points.
It is not a number that is arithmetically impossible to reverse, but it is only an arithmetic probability. According to Tottenham's recent performance and results in the league, Tottenham fans have already given up. Rather, it is a realistic choice to focus on UEL as much as possible to win the championship. If Tottenham does well in the league in the rest of the schedule and raises their performance from 15th to 11th, it actually means nothing. It's the same that 11th or 15th place can't go to the European competition next season.
In addition, Einracht Frankfurt, who is ranked third in the German Bundesliga this season, is the opponent of the UEL quarterfinals. I don't know if Tottenham is ahead in objective power, but Frankfurt is much better this season based on the flow and atmosphere. It is not strange at all even if Frankfurt wins.
As a result, Tottenham manager Enze Postecoglou can choose to focus on the match against Frankfurt by saving as much physical strength as possible against Southampton because Son Heung-min also played against Chelsea during the week. James Madison, the vice president, is expected to go through a similar process.
It is an inevitable situation that cannot be changed, but it will be bitter for Son Heung-min. This is because it could be the worst performance ever since switching to the EPL in a season where he is leading as a captain. Next season could be the last season against Tottenham, but if his performance in the league collapsed completely, he was in danger of not being able to play in the European competition. The league doesn't mean much to play any more this season.
This is also why Tottenham fans want Postecoglou to be replaced as soon as possible. Tottenham are expected to replace Postecoglou if they fail to win the UEL.
Reporter Kim Dae-sik rlaeotlr2024@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
