Player Watch Player Watch: Son Heung-min

[Gassin's finest]

It's wrong to compare Salah and Son. Son is far more of a goalscorer than a dribbler and is scorer of spectacular goals. Salah can just go on these mazy run that leaves defenders in the dust and has a real knack for squeezing shots past keepers from some really acute angles.

I think it is the Messi-esque dribbling that is what gets Salah more attention.

Son v Salah is like 2nd tier Ronaldo v Messi.

 

[GarlicBread]

The turnaround in feeling at the club over the last 6 months is extraordinary. In November I think some of us were about ready to call the Samaritans and now look where we are.

 

[hughy]

Delighted that we've got another Golden Boot winner, Sonny especially.

But they mentioned this on MOTD last night... remember when Golden Boot winners used to get 30 goals per season?

I have absolutely no stats to back this up*, but I reckon goals are shared around the team a lot more than they used to be. Liverpool for example have 3 players with 15+ league goals, 8 Man City players have 7 or more league goals, and Chelsea have 13 players who have scored at least 3 league goals.


*I mean stats from seasons gone by. Obviously I have stats for this season, they're right there.

 

[spids]

Just watched all 23 goals Sonny scored this season in the league. Some show reel. What really struck me is how two footed he is, impossible to tell which is his stronger foot. For example, the two curlers he scored recently form 25 yards - one versus Leicester (left foot top corner), one against Norwich (right foot top corner). Incredible. Cannot think of another play so two footed with such finishing quality

 

[theShiznit]

He's one of those people that just seems so likeable and makes you smile just to see him.

That's why it always surprises me when i hear/see such vitriol towards him from opposition fans.

I mean we're all guilty of a bit of club bias, but i always liked someone like say Zola who also had that sort of infectious personality that everyone liked, but hate for someone so affable who 90% of the time has the biggest smile on his face just seems bizarre.

 

[allatsea]

He's one of those people that just seems so likeable and makes you smile just to see him.

That's why it always surprises me when i hear/see such vitriol towards him from opposition fans.

I mean we're all guilty of a bit of club bias, but i always liked someone like say Zola who also had that sort of infectious personality that everyone liked, but hate for someone so affable who 90% of the time has the biggest smile on his face just seems bizarre.

Jealousy is a terrible thing.

 

[Delboy75]

Love to know the reaction in Korea they must be going bonkers. This must be up there with people winning gold at the Olympics or probably bigger. That your is gonna be a madness.

 

[Dov67]

Will never forget that he signed a new deal with us when the club was an absolute mess. Means as much as all his goals

 

[PLTuck]

Awww he even did a Dele wave

Fabulous season from a fabulous player. It's so obvious how well he is thought of among team mates. I thought the Kulu miss/trip was because he was caught in 2 minds whether to shoot or try and set Sonny up for a tap in. Kane drifted out left and tried to play him in a few times too and the reaction from all his team mates when that beautiful 2nd went in said it all.

 

[mattstev2000]

Will never forget that he signed a new deal with us when the club was an absolute mess. Means as much as all his goals

Totally agree with this, with his quality he could have gone anywhere but he showed real loyalty to the club even when it was lost and rudderless.

I'm totally made up that he got some level of personal reward for his season as well as playing in the champions league next season where he belongs.

Heung-min Son, he's one of our own.

 

[Yiddo100]

 

[Gassin's finest]

I have absolutely no stats to back this up*, but I reckon goals are shared around the team a lot more than they used to be. Liverpool for example have 3 players with 15+ league goals, 8 Man City players have 7 or more league goals, and Chelsea have 13 players who have scored at least 3 league goals.


*I mean stats from seasons gone by. Obviously I have stats for this season, they're right there.

It's something that (unfairly) niggles me... That if he sorted out how many sitters he misses (and he misses quite a few), he'd easily be hitting 30 goals.

But honestly he's class.

 

[mil1lion]

Love to know the reaction in Korea they must be going bonkers. This must be up there with people winning gold at the Olympics or probably bigger. That your is gonna be a madness.

he might be a bit popular when we tour South Korea in July

 

[C0YS]

Delighted that we've got another Golden Boot winner, Sonny especially.

But they mentioned this on MOTD last night... remember when Golden Boot winners used to get 30 goals per season?

Yeah back when the league had 22 teams. Since the PL moved to only 20 teams 7 players have won the golden boot with more than 30 goals in 27 seasons.
These are: Shearer 95-96, Kevin Phillips 99-00, Henry 03-04, Ronaldo 07-08, Van Persie 11-12, Suarez 13-14 Salah 17-18

So it happens around 2/3 times a decade. It does seem to be happening less often but its not a significant shift. It's around as common as 20 goals or under winning the golden boot which has happened 5 times and that seems to also be decreasing in likelyhood.

Interestingly the late 70s and early 80s in particular saw a much lower goals per game rate for top scorers than now, probably reflecting changes in style in the British game. Then there are always some surprising stats, like Michael Owen never scored more than 19 goals in a season despite winning the golden boot twice.

whats more interesting us the level of consistency. The last four years we have had 22,23,23,23.

These numbers are bellow average, but not significantly. I mean, the 60s was the last decade where 22 goals would not have won you the golden boot in at least a season, and 23 goals would win you it around one in every three seasons (70s 3/10, 80s 3/10, 90s 4/10, 2000s 3/10, 10s 2/10 and 20s 3/3).

But the consistency may be a sign of something. In the past the number of goals scored by the top scorer was fairly volatile swinging wildly year to year. Take this sequence Henry 27, Drogba 20, Ronaldo 31, Anelka 19, Drogba 29, Berbatov and Tevez 20, Van Persie 30. It's about an average of a 10 goal swing back and forth.

The new consistency might indicate a more systematic approaches to coaching. And that, for me, is more interesting than the lower average of goals required to be top scorer.

A crude estimate is since the PL has started around 24-26 goals is the average required. 23 isn't exactly far off that. 30+ goals always marks an exceptional season.

Keep in mind that the average amount of players to score more than 20 in a season has always been around 3 (the record of most in a season in a 38 game PL season is 5 in 16/17 and 09/10). And only twice in PL history has more than one player scored more than 30 goals in a season, Salah and Kane a few years ago and Cole and Shearer back in the 42 games a season days.

 

[Gassin's finest]

Yeah back when the league had 22 teams. Since the PL moved to only 20 teams 7 players have won the golden boot with more than 30 goals in 27 seasons.
These are: Shearer 95-96, Kevin Phillips 99-00, Henry 03-04, Ronaldo 07-08, Van Persie 11-12, Suarez 13-14 Salah 17-18

So it happens around 2/3 times a decade. It does seem to be happening less often but its not a significant shift. It's around as common as 20 goals or under winning the golden boot which has happened 5 times and that seems to also be decreasing in likelyhood.

Interestingly the late 70s and early 80s in particular saw a much lower goals per game rate for top scorers than now, probably reflecting changes in style in the British game. Then there are always some surprising stats, like Michael Owen never scored more than 19 goals in a season despite winning the golden boot twice.

whats more interesting us the level of consistency. The last four years we have had 22,23,23,23.

These numbers are bellow average, but not significantly. I mean, the 60s was the last decade where 22 goals would not have won you the golden boot in at least a season, and 23 goals would win you it around one in every three seasons (70s 3/10, 80s 3/10, 90s 4/10, 2000s 3/10, 10s 2/10 and 20s 3/3).

But the consistency may be a sign of something. In the past the number of goals scored by the top scorer was fairly volatile swinging wildly year to year. Take this sequence Henry 27, Drogba 20, Ronaldo 31, Anelka 19, Drogba 29, Berbatov and Tevez 20, Van Persie 30. It's about an average of a 10 goal swing back and forth.

The new consistency might indicate a more systematic approaches to coaching. And that, for me, is more interesting than the lower average of goals required to be top scorer.

A crude estimate is since the PL has started around 24-26 goals is the average required. 23 isn't exactly far off that. 30+ goals always marks an exceptional season.

Keep in mind that the average amount of players to score more than 20 in a season has always been around 3 (the record of most in a season in a 38 game PL season is 5 in 16/17 and 09/10). And only twice in PL history has more than one player scored more than 30 goals in a season, Salah and Kane a few years ago and Cole and Shearer back in the 42 games a season days.

Nah, football was better when I was a lad

 

[We'llWinThePrem]

Very glad I got Son on the back of the 3rd kit this season. Historic

 

[C0YS]

It's something that (unfairly) niggles me... That if he sorted out how many sitters he misses (and he misses quite a few), he'd easily be hitting 30 goals.

But honestly he's class.

He misses quite a few, but also scores ones he really shouldn't. I think statistically, for difficulty of chance he is the most clinical player in Europe. Though, sure, he could score 30.

I think as a fan base though we have reached a point of expecting actually fairly difficult chances to be put away, and this is because we have just been gifted with two world class finishers in Son and Kane.

Further to this, we also just didn't create many chances at all in the previous two seasons and the start of this one. And we were just used to creating few chances but being very clinical with them.

Now we regularly are able to create chances (at least against the right kind of opposition) we, what? Average almost 90 goals a season if our recent average were to sustain throughout a season.

That's what's exciting, we have two very clinical players if we manage to give them enough chances throughout the season then we are going to have a very deadly attack. Real Madrid have Vini and Benzema who have 44 combined goals with 22 combined assists in the league. Kane and Son are on 40 goals and 16 assists. Next season they could be targeting at least 70 goal contributions combined.

 

[glacierSpurs]

I was teary eye watching how the club and our players love him so much. Everything is so human, I'm so proud of everything about our club...

I guess this video is rightful to be here because towards the end the love in for Son was just incredible, even from Norwich side. ?

 

[PCozzie]

Looking back at the goals from yesterday, something else struck me about Son's goalscoring record. For Son's second goal Lucas took the free kick, obviously so that Son could be in the box. But that's an exception to the rule. Son takes the corners and wide free kicks, and though heading isn't his greatest attribute, he can't take advantage when the ball is bouncing around.

He really has scored 23 goals entirely from open play.

 

[sausage]