The Tottenham team is exhausted, and even Son Heung-min is missing

Director Enze has a lot of worries.

A video of Son Heung-min is shown at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Qatar Asian Cup national soccer team roster announcement ceremony held at CGV I'Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 28th. The Korean national soccer team, led by Coach Klinsmann, will compete against Bahrain (86th), Jordan (87th), and Malaysia (130th) in Group E of the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup.

With the team's stamina depleted, Tottenham manager Angel Postekoglou is deeply worried as even Son Heung-min has to miss out on participating in the Asian Cup.

Tottenham lost 2-4 in the 2023-24 EPL 19th round away game against Brighton held at the American Express Stadium in Brighton, England on the 29th (Korean time).

Tottenham, who led the EPL with 8 wins, 2 draws and undefeated streak through the 10th round after the opening, is not able to continue its early upward trend. With the loss on this day, Tottenham recorded 11 wins, 3 draws, and 5 losses (36 points), failing to re-enter the TOP 4 and remaining in 5th place.

In particular, today's game is more disappointing in that Tottenham completely lost the dynamic performance and hot attack power that it showed at the beginning of the season.

The biggest reason for the sluggish performance is that there are too many injured players. Tottenham's midfielder James Madison, who was a key player in the team's early rise, has still not returned from injury, and Christian Romero, the key player in the defense, recently suffered an injury, exposing weaknesses in many areas.

Even Son Heung-min said, “Today’s game fell far short of the level of soccer we were trying to achieve. It was such a reckless act that he calmly reflected, “It wasn’t who we knew.”

Even the existing players, in addition to the injured ones, are physically exhausted, and it appears that it is not easy to maintain the tempo of the good times in the beginning.

Coach Postekoglou said, “Our players overall looked tired, and they were actually tired,” and pointed out their lack of stamina as a disappointment.

He continued, “But (because there were no substitute players), we couldn’t give the players a break. As a result, the players must have been under a lot of pressure to comply with my demands,” he said, acknowledging that there was no clear solution to the problem.

An even bigger problem is that Son Heung-min, the team's top scorer (11 goals), will soon be absent for up to a month.

Son Heung-min, who was included in the final entry of the Korean national soccer team for the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup, will soon leave for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the national team's base camp. Korea will play its first game of the tournament against Bahrain on the 15th. If Korea makes it to the finals, Tottenham will have to play its schedule without Son Heung-min until February 10th.

Tottenham, who finished the game on the 29th, will play the 20th round of the EPL against Bournemouth at 11pm on the 31st, two days later, and still have a tight schedule ahead of them until the FA Cup against Burnley on January 6th next year.

Tottenham is hoping that Son Heung-min will be called up to the national team as late as possible, but coach Jurgen Klinsmann drew a line when announcing the list, saying, “In principle, all national team players will join by January 3.” In this case, Son Heung-min will leave Tottenham after only playing against Bournemouth.

Coach Postekoglou joked, “I hope Son Heung-min comes in second place (following his home country, Australia),” but expressed his difficulties, saying, “I have a lot to think about.” 스포츠토토맨