Son Heung-min (32, Tottenham Hotspur) was replaced early again. After playing 55 minutes after returning from injury, he was allowed only 45 minutes this time.
Son Heung-min started in the fourth round of the UEFA Europa League phase of the 2024-25 season at Neff Stadium in Istanbul, Turkiye, on the 8th, but was replaced at the start of the second half without scoring.
Son represented his team in an away match against Turkiye, which was not easy, but was pulled out early. Son, who was the second starting player after returning from injury, only had 22 blushers and a 73 percent pass success rate (11/15). He had no shooting or attack points. Considering his physical condition, he only played in the first half.
Son once expressed dissatisfaction with the early replacement. He returned to the bench in the 10th round of the English Premier League with Aston Villa, who had just returned from a hamstring injury last weekend, and displayed strong anger. He looked puzzled when he received a replacement signal when he was in the mood after posting help.
The problem was that the coach lacked communication due to his greed to play as a professional player and concern about recurrence of injury. Postecoglou said at the time, “He was only scheduled to play for 55 to 60 minutes. He just returned from injury. He also showed a bit of fatigue after playing for about 60 minutes in the last match. Therefore, he was not planning to let him play for more than 60 minutes regardless of the situation in the match against Aston Villa.”
The Galatasaray match also holds the same stance. As the game was so rough, he seemed to care more about Son. “He had a recurrence in the game when he returned from injury. I don’t want to put him in that danger again,” Postecoglou said at a press conference ahead of the 11th round with Ipswich Town on Saturday.
“The most important thing for us is to keep Son Heung-min. There should be no more injuries in that position. Wilson O’Doubert and Hicharlisong already have long-term injuries. Mikey Moore is also out of power,” he said, citing missing players on the offensive.
Postecoglou pays more attention because Timo Werner is also absent from the match against Ipswich. As he hinted at Werner’s absence by saying, “I will miss the weekend’s game,” Tottenham has to use Son Heung-min as long as possible against Ipswich. As a result, they gave only 45 minutes to Galatasaray, making full preparations.
However, Tottenham lost in an away match in Turkiye without Son. Tottenham was almost one-sidedly hit. Galatasaray scored three goals in the first half alone by shooting 11 times. On the contrary, Tottenham only had one shot in the Wil Lancashire goal scene. 토토사이트
He looked rather better in the second half. Ironically, he could no longer play when Rankshire was given a second warning. Tottenham, which was even inferior in numbers, raised concerns that the score gap would widen further, but showed enthusiasm for one more goal.
The goal difference heated up in the end. Galatasaray also attempted to shoot with Mauro Icardi in front of him to seal the net. Kulusevskiy made a determined shot at the end of the match, but it missed the goal. Thus, Tottenham recorded its first Europa League defeat by losing 2-3 to Galatasaray.