‘Zero doubts’ – Conte gives detailed response to Heung-min Son’s Spurs form

Antonio Conte has said that he and his coaching staff have no doubts regarding Son Heung-min’s quality despite the forward’s struggles this season.

Son was one of the best players in the Premier League last season and ended up sharing the Golden Boot with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. However, the striker is currently on course to having his least productive season in front of goal since his move to Spurs in 2015.

He has only found the back of the net three times in 15 league matches so far (Transfermarkt), with all three of those goals coming over the course of a 13-minute spell against Leicester City back in September.

Conte insisted that all players go through phases in their career such as the one the South Korean is going through at the moment.

When asked about Son’s form, the Tottenham head coach told Football.London: “I think that Sonny is the first person that knows when you compare to last season, the numbers are different.

“We are talking about an intelligent person. The player knows very well if you are performing well or if you are performing so and so, for many reasons. Don’t forget that Sonny had this injury in his face.

“On one hand, it’s important to have the coach, the staff, the team-mates to try to help you. On the other hand, you have to know that you are mature, to face the situation and then to go out of this situation with your effort. This is important because we are talking about an important player.

“We need our important players to perform well. I was a player, I know you can live different moments. For sure, Sonny has 100 per cent trust from ourselves, and his team-mates.

“We know he is an important player for us. The player knows that he can perform much better than the way he did until now.”

Conte remarked that he has zero doubts that Son will manage to turn his form around, suggesting that it only takes one or two moments for the forward to regain his confidence.

The Italian added: “In this situation, you have to play, you have to be focused and know that there is one situation that can change it totally. In this moment, what you are seeing in a negative way can become positive. Football is this.

“(If you hit) the post (and it goes in or) it goes outside, it change totally the mood, the perception of the perception of the performance of the players. For this reason he has to continue very well, in the way he is doing, to be focused and to know he is an important player for us.

“If we start to have doubts about these players, then we are in trouble, but we have zero doubts about Sonny. If you remember last season it happened the same in a period.

“It happened last season also for Harry Kane in a period, but we are talking about a player that the expectations are really, really high.

“For this reason, when the performances are not so high or they are not going to score, you can see this much more than other players that play as midfielders or defenders.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Son has always been a confidence player and frequently goes through purple and barren patches over the course of a season. The fact that teams are stopping the supply to Kane is also affecting the South Korean as our midfielders do not have the vision and passing range to regularly pick out the 30-year-old’s runs.

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