Son Heung-min was right to be angry with Antonio Conte’s decision to substitute him for Richarlison in Tottenham ’s win over Nottingham Forest, according to Alan Shearer.
Son was brought off in the 74th minute of the 2-0 win at the City Ground on Sunday when the game was still in the balance at 1-0. The South Korean is yet to find the back of the net in four Premier League matches this season and looked visibly frustrated with Conte’s call to replace him.
While much of the post-match focus has been on his controversial kick-ups, Richarlison made a difference by providing the assist for Harry Kane’s second goal. Son is facing pressure for his place in the starting XI ahead of their trip to West Ham on Wednesday evening.
Premier League record goal scorer Shearer understands Son’s reaction and is of the belief that it is actually a good thing, because it shows he cares. “I was really interested in Son’s reaction to being substituted,” he told Optus Sport.
“I totally understand it and I think that’s a good thing. He’s shown his anger that he doesn’t want to come off because there are still goals at stake and chances and he realises that Richarlison’s not there just to sit on the bench, he wants to be in the game as well.
“There’s anger because he feels that someone else should come off, take someone else off, not him. I don’t see that as being a problem, I think it’s a good thing. You can see his reaction, he’s just not happy at all and rightly so – ‘take someone else off but not me!’”
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Kane addressed Son’s form after the South Korean was substituted for the third straight game, having failed to score again. “We have a lot of games coming up so we’re going to need everyone, of course Sonny is frustrated with not scoring but he’s an important player for us,” Kane told Sky Sports. “If we want to achieve anything this season, we need Sonny to keep doing what he’s doing, he’ll pop up with goals no doubt, but also when players are not quite at it you need players off the bench and Richy’s definitely doing that.”
Conte doesn’t sound concerned either. “I think no problem with Sonny's performance, his attitude and commitment is always up very high. I'm happy with his performance and I don't see any problems with him,” he said in his press conference before the win over Nottingham Forest.
“For sure, you know very well when you're a striker you like to score and when you score and win you're happy. But at the same time we always have to put the club winning before the interests of every single player. But it's not a problem.”
