Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has performed a U-turn on his previous comments about Son Heung-min being undroppable following the South Korean’s slow start to the season.
Son became Tottenham ’s best player last season and shared the Premier League Golden Boot award alongside Mohamed Salah after notching 23 goals in the top flight, yet has failed to find the back of the net after eight games in the current campaign.
And following Richarlison’s arrival from Everton in a £60million deal this summer, there is added competition for the front three, prompting Conte to admit the culture has changed now at Tottenham.
Speaking in Monday’s press conference, the Italian said: “I think when you try to build something important, when you try to build something with ambition and try to be competitive and fight to win, you have to change old habits, otherwise it means you want to stay in balance and it means you don't want to have ambition.
“For this reason all the players have to accept the rotation especially up front, we have four players. For me especially it's very difficult right now to drop one of these four players, but I have to make the best decision for the team, also for the players.
“Sometimes it's better to rest and don't start a game, to come in and play only 20 or 30 minutes and then play the following games. For sure I'm here to try to change the old habit. The old habit was that the players were used to playing in every game.”
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Conte stuck with his usual front three of Dejan Kulsevski, Harry Kane and Son for the first five games of the season, before dropping the former to the bench in place of Richarlison, who has since started the last three fixtures against Fulham, Marseille and Sporting Lisbon.
The Brazilian forward has certainly impressed since being rewarded with his first start. After registering an assist in the 2-1 victory over Fulham, he then grabbed both goals in last week's 2-0 victory against Marseille in the Champions League.
Yet many believe Kulusevski’s axe from the starting lineup has been harsh given he has had a better start to the season than Son. There have been plenty of calls for the South Korean international to be dropped instead, and even more so following the 2-0 defeat to Sporting on Tuesday.
Conte added: “You try to make the players happy, but big clubs have a big squad, a deep squad. In this moment we don't have a big squad but we have just started to try to follow this path. For this reason what happens with one of these four players will be normal and you have to know it's good for a coach like me to have these options."
Spurs next face bottom side Leicester City at home on Saturday where they will be keen to continue their unbeaten record in the Premier League and avoid consecutive defeats this week. However, with it being their final game before the international break, Conte may keep faith in Son.
Should that be the case, then it could also see Kulusevski reintroduced to the side following his three-game absence from the starting lineup, now that he has had the opportunity to rest, which could see Richarlison miss out.
