Liverpool would have won the Premier League last season if not for Son Heung-min.
The South Korean, who finished level with Mohamed Salah on 23 goals to share the Golden Boot, scored home and away against the Reds as they fought out a 2-2 draw in North London and a 1-1 stalemate at Anfield. The dropped points from the second encounter, coming in May, would ultimately prove costly as Jurgen Klopp’s men missed out on the title by a solitary point to Manchester City.
Luis Diaz would cancel out Son’s opener to earn a share of the spoils, while the South Korean scored a late equaliser against Liverpool back in December. Without either strike, the additional two points would have seen the Reds crowned Premier League champions.
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Of course this is all ifs and buts, with Son’s strikes not the only decisive moments you can look back on in hindsight.
What if Liverpool had taken advantage of a Reece James red card on the stroke of half-time to beat Chelsea in August?
What if they hadn't twice conceded the lead in their 3-3 away draw with Brentford or 2-2 home draw with Man City? What if they hadn't thrown away two-goal leads in their 2-2 home draw with Brighton and away draw with Chelsea?
What if Harry Kane had been sent off in their 2-2 draw with Spurs, or Salah hadn't missed a penalty in their 1-0 loss away at Leicester City?
What if VAR had awarded Everton a penalty against Man City for Rodri's handball as Pep Guardiola's men recorded a narrow 1-0 win? And what if Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa had held onto their 2-0 lead away at Man City on the final day of the season, rather than fall to a 3-2 defeat?
So many sliding doors moments that could have resulted in the Premier League season finishing differently for Liverpool. Yet the fact there were so many highlight the small margins that proved costly for the Reds in a campaign where near-perfection was required to topple Man City.
In truth, Klopp’s men can have few complaints about their second-place finish, even if missing out on the title by a point for the second time in four years was hard to stomach. Especially when they found themselves having to make up a deficit as big as 14 points, albeit with two games in hand, in mid-January.
As a result, the only small grievance Liverpool could perhaps have with those Son-inflicted dropped points at Anfield is if they had managed to win, they would have at least piled even more pressure on City during those final games of the season. Yet, as Guardiola’s men demonstrated by their late comeback against Villa, and indeed their latest title-challenge against Arsenal, they rarely blink regardless of the stakes.
Still, Klopp still has some reason to be sick of the sight of Spurs’ South Korean forward. He has, after all, scored four goals from his last eight Premier League starts against Liverpool, while he returned five goals from five starts against the German's Borussia Dortmund.
Yet while he would remain unbeaten when starting against Klopp in the Bundesliga during his time with Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen, it’s a different story from his meetings with the Reds.
Locking horns with Liverpool on 13 occasions, Spurs' infamous 4-1 victory, in which he scored, in October 2017, remains the only time Son has ended up on the winning side against Klopp’s Reds. And of course, such a run includes Tottenham’s defeat in the 2019 Champions League final.
Still, a record of nine goals from 16 starts in all competitions against Klopp’s sides ensure the South Korean is a danger-man who could deal their European hopes a big blow if he maintains such a scoring one at Anfield on Sunday. And one the German knows is near impossible to stop.
"I will be prepared for the best possible Tottenham side,” Klopp told reporters ahead of Sunday’s game. “They were, for some years, by some distance the best counter-attacking team in Europe.
“There were moments when you lost the ball, they only had to find Harry Kane and the next moment Son was in a one v one situation with the goalie. No clue how to defend that properly, best way not to lose the ball.”
As a result, is it any wonder that Klopp wishes he had signed Son earlier in his career?
“One of the biggest mistakes in my life is not signing Son Heung-min,” he rued to Korean outlet KBS News last November. “Outstanding player. He is fantastic, a sign of Korean football and one of the best strikers in the world.”
The German failed to sign the forward for Borussia Dortmund when he left Hamburg in 2013, as Son opted to join Bayer Leverkusen instead in a €10m deal.
“I wanted to stay in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen and Dortmund wanted me,” the South Korean later recalled when explaining his decision to snub Klopp. “Both teams play in the Champions League but I thought Dortmund would use rotation more than Leverkusen.
“That's why I chose Leverkusen over Dortmund. It's really important to play regularly at my age.”
Two years later, having scored 29 goals across two campaigns for Leverkusen, he would sign for Spurs for £22m in the same summer that Klopp left the Bundesliga. Now, a Tottenham Premier League legend, he boasts 144 goals from 367 appearances across eight seasons. But crucially, no trophies.
Given Klopp’s admiration for Son, Liverpool have sporadically been linked with his services over the years. Yet, now 30 years old, that ship seems to have long since sailed.
But while the German might consider it one of his ‘biggest mistakes’ not signing the South Korean, Liverpool will have no regrets. Son is the same age as their famous, now dismantled, attacking triumvirate of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah, after all.
Firmino would make his own switch from Bundesliga to Premier League the same summer as Son, joining the Reds for £29m from Hoffenheim. Enduring a slow start, partly because of injury, once Klopp took over as manager in October 2015 and inherited the Brazilian, the forward was revitalised and hasn’t looked back since.
Confirmed to be leaving Anfield at the end of his contract this summer, the 31-year-old boasts 109 goals and 72 assists for the Reds from 360 appearances to date.
As for Mane, he was snapped up from Southampton for £34m in the summer of 2016. Klopp had previously tried to sign the Senegalese for Dortmund, as he had also attempted with Son, only to decide against the switch. He would later admit he could have punched himself for such a decision, and made sure to make amends at Anfield, righting a wrong that he couldn’t with regards to the South Korean, once the 31-year-old became available.
Mane would register 120 goals and 38 assists from 269 appearances for Liverpool before leaving for Bayern Munich in a £35m switch last year.
Meanwhile, Salah signed from AS Roma for £43.9m in the summer of 2017. He currently boasts 183 goals and 69 assists from 299 games, and the 30-year-old is already regarded as one of the greatest players in the club’s history.
Between them, the trio would help transform the Reds’ fortunes under Klopp. While Firmino and Mane would help get Liverpool back into the Champions League, the addition of Salah contributed to their transformation into one of Europe’s strongest sides.
All three would win every major honour on offer to them under Klopp as the Reds were crowned champions of England, Europe, and the world.
Admittedly, if you are being greedy, you could be forgiven for wondering what else Liverpool might have won had they possessed Son’s talents to compliment their then-undroppable front-line. He is certainly a player that suits Klopp’s demands, after all.
Yet apart from a few admiring glances of their own, Kopites have never had to wonder what could have been when it comes to the South Korean. They are more than happy with the hand Liverpool were dealt.
Whether Son has any regrets of his own, given his lack of silverware compared to his Reds counterparts, only he can say. It is worth noting though that even if he hadn’t turned down Klopp and Dortmund’s advances in 2013, that doesn’t mean he would have followed the German to Anfield.
Likewise, had he not left Leverkusen when he did, it’s impossible to know if Klopp would have reignited interest in Son’s services following his own arrival at Anfield. Like the South Korean’s impact on Liverpool’s title charge last year, it’s all ifs and buts now.
Son might be a big mistake for Klopp but there are no Reds regrets. The South Korean could have potentially been part of this Anfield story, but instead he is just an admired foe, watching on from afar as Liverpool won everything there is to win, with Europe’s biggest prize even coming at his expense.
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