Tottenham Should Make Heung-min Son a Wing-back

Tottenham winger Heung-min Son’s curious plight against Middlesbrough on Saturday suggests the player and club would be better served with a change in position.

One of the South Korean’s most admirable qualities is his willingness to drop back and help build up play. For a Tottenham team centered around reclaiming the ball and quickly transitioning it back forward, a player like Son is invaluable.

Unfortunately, barring the occasional haul of goals, Son doesn’t appear to have much of a consistent end product. Against Middlesbrough he regularly shuttled the ball up to the final third only to hesitate on a shot or widely miss the mark.

Such unevenness makes it tricky to criticize Son’s inclusion in this team. It was he who won the penalty that decided the match, after all. Yet it is just as hard to say that his presence in the attack made Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen’s jobs easier.

Part of the reason is that Tottenham perform markedly better in matches like Saturday’s when they are not obliged to play someone directly behind Kane. With teams like Boro enthusiastically defending the narrow area in front of their own goal, playmakers like Alli or Eriksen often get bogged down. They are much better served when played slightly wider and given space on the flanks.

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Is there a solution that would free up Alli and Eriksen while also still including Son? As a matter of fact, yes. But it won’t be easy to implement.

Tottenham lined up in a more traditional 4-2-3-1 formation on Saturday in part because of injuries. The 3-4-2-1 that earned them so much success through December and January was devastating only insofar that Danny Rose was healthy and able to man the left wing-back position.

With the England international nursing a twisted knee, Mauricio Pochettino was forced to turn to Ben Davies. The Welshman is a fine player, but his game is slower and more defensive than Rose’s. It is far from ideal to ask him to perform as a wing-back, hence the return to a more conventional backline.

Doing so robbed Tottenham of a lot of the attacking heft they so enjoyed in previous weeks. Especially against a virtually impotent Boro side, too many players were committed to defense.

Asking Son to line up in the left wing-back role would thus solve multiple problems. It would permit the 3-4-2-1 once again while also giving Tottenham proper width from deeper areas. Son already proved his ability to drive play forward from the center of the pitch, and on previous occasions displayed his willingness to drop back in support of the defense. What’s more, he wouldn’t be as obliged to deliver a final product.

This would not be ideal on every occasion, of course. Against a team like Liverpool or Chelsea, Pochettino would prefer a more committed defensive presence over a converted winger. Rose, when he returns to fitness hopefully in the next few weeks, should remain the first choice option.

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Against a team that would be content to park the bus though, Son might be the perfect remedy. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this has worked either. Victor Moses, for instance, began his career as a proper wide forward like Son, but now patrols Chelsea’s right flank as a wing-back.

With Rose the clear best option when healthy, such a move wouldn’t necessarily guarantee Son more minutes. It would play more to his strengths however, and therefore help Tottenham out of some frustrating situations.