Ange Postecoglou has backed Son Heung-min to rediscover his best form and suggested even Mohamed Salah would struggle in the current Tottenham team.
Son, who has seen Spurs trigger their one-year option on his contract to tie him down until the summer of 2026, goes into Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at home to Liverpool with an unforgiving spotlight on his performances.
The club captain’s numbers are down this season – seven goals and six assists from 23 appearances. Salah, meanwhile, has an astonishing 21 goals and 17 assists in 27 games for Liverpool.
Postecoglou wanted to highlight the context, which takes in Spurs’s troubles and how Liverpool have streaked clear at the top ofthe Premier League and Champions League tables. Spurs, who remain mired in a selection crisis, have won three of 14 matches, the nadir being the 6-3 home defeat by Liverpool in the league on 22 December.
“People need to have a little bit of context,” Postecoglou said. “Mo is a world-class player but if you put him in our team now I’m not sure he’ll have that same level of performance because of the situation we’re in as a group.
“You need a team that’s in good form, creating opportunities, playing on the front foot, having a really solid foundation of a defence that is cohesive. None of these things exist at the moment [at Spurs]. We’re relying on individual moments.
“Mo is an unbelievable player but he’s playing in a fantastic team that are flying. I’d hazard to say that if you put Sonny in Liverpool’s team, I reckon his goalscoring return would be decent.
“We are a team that is very disrupted, that is not playing with a fluency that it can play with. We’re asking players to play in positions that they are totally unfamiliar with. But when we’re at our best, I still think you’ll see Sonny’s return – in terms of his ability to score goals and be really effective for us. He’s going through a tough trot but we’re going through a tough trot. That goes hand in hand.”
Postecoglou is under mounting pressure and he admitted that “not a great deal has changed” since the 6-3 Liverpool game in terms of the overall situation: injuries, suspensions, the strain on the squad, especially at the back and across the front three.
Definitely out through injury are Guglielmo Vicario, Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert and Richarlison. James Maddison and Pape Sarr are banned. Mikey Moore could return to the bench. Postecoglou said Richarlison may be back for next Wednesday’s league match at Arsenal.
On the upside, Spurs did have a free midweek last week and Son played for only 28 minutes as a substitute in Saturday’s league defeat at home to Newcastle. He has been in need of a breather. The Czech Republic Under-21 international goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky has also arrived for £12.5m from Slavia Prague. Postecoglou must decide whether to put him straight into the lineup ahead of Fraser Forster and Brandon Austin.
What the manager once again made clear was the need for January reinforcements. In the context of a discussion about the impressive contributions of the centre-forward Dominic Solanke, Postecoglou said: “Hopefully in the very near future we get some help for him and then I think we’ll see him go to another level.”
Pressed on whether that meant a new signing up front or the return of an existing player, he replied: “Both. It’s hopefully what we can do but I wouldn’t suggest tomorrow. Not a centre-forward but I think we need some help in the front half if we can get it. We know that all being well, in seven days, Richy’s back and he’ll definitely help Dom.”
Spurs have an interest in the Paris Saint-Germain forward Randal Kolo Muani and Postecoglou did not pull down the shutters when the player’s name was mentioned. “Look, we are still trying to help the squad,” he said.
Postecoglou’s focus is on the Liverpool semi-final and, plainly, winning a trophy would give his project a shot in the arm – and boost his job security. He was reminded that the Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy, sacked José Mourinho six days before the club took on Manchester City in the 2021 Carabao Cup final.
“So, just drop out at the semi-final, you reckon?” Postecoglou said with a smile. “I don’t need greater [job] security. All I see is a group of players who are giving absolutely everything; every person at this football club pushing hard every day.
“The results are on me. It’s my responsibility to change that. And if it doesn’t change, then of course I’m the one who should take whatever ramifications there are to it. But I don’t need any more security than seeing what I see every day – that the club and everyone at the club is totally supportive of what we’re trying to do.”
