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Son Heung-Min

Spur of the moment said:
Well the article does say that Son has been consistently outperforming his xG ever since he arrived.

It acknowledges that he is exceptionally good with both feet whereas xG allows for players to be weaker on one or the other.

Also that he is strong on the counter, but that still doesn't fully explain the anomally. After all, Vardy is also supposed to be exceptional on the counter but his xG performance is relatively low by comparison.

Maybe the reality is that none of us have fully appreciated the full range of skills that Son brings together to make him such a lethal striker. Think about it: who else is able to combine such exceptional pace with excellent ball control, dribbling skills and shot accuracy all at high speed? Maybe another factor that has come to the fore this season is the extra confidence and belief gained from the awards and recognition for his wonder goal against Burnley.

Add to all that Harry Kane's visionary passing combined with their telepathic understanding and maybe we are beginning to see why his numbers are so extraordinary this season.
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Good points. It does feel like once he gets a defender squared up one on one there is only going to be one result.

would some of those players, including Vardy be skewed a little because they take pens? As in the xG would be quite high so difficult to outperform?
 
MKSpur said:
Good points. It does feel like once he gets a defender squared up one on one there is only going to be one result.

would some of those players, including Vardy be skewed a little because they take pens? As in the xG would be quite high so difficult to outperform?
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Maybe, to an extent, but I'd wager his stats are still off the scale by comparison.

Another thing that's maybe worth mentioning is what on the face of it is a remarkable improvement in his shot accuracy this season. Up to about a couple of seasons back the joke was he was as likely to balloon it into Row Z as to hit the target, but his current shot accuracy stats are nothing lerss than freeakish. I wonder to what extent this might be down to Jose and his coaching staff successfully building up his confidence?

He certainly seems to have come out from underneath Harry's shadow in recent months.
 
Spur of the moment said:
Maybe, to an extent, but I'd wager his stats are still off the scale by comparison.

Another thing that's maybe worth mentioning is what on the face of it is a remarkable improvement in his shot accuracy this season. Up to about a couple of seasons back the joke was he was as likely to balloon it into Row Z as to hit the target, but his current shot accuracy stats are nothing lerss than freeakish. I wonder to what extent this might be down to Jose and his coaching staff successfully building up his confidence?

He certainly seems to have come out from underneath Harry's shadow in recent months.
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A lot of it's confidence. Which ties in with Sonny being a streaky player.

Take his goal against Brentford the other night. It didn't look like much on first viewing, but it was actually a very good finish. He lofts his shot over the keeper and high into the net. It's so hard to get the power right at pace, and he'd have looked a right pillock if he blasted it over.

Tell you what, re-watching the highlights Spurs TV have put on YouTube has also reminded me how good Sonny's corners are getting too. Quality player.
 
FatBloke said:
A lot of it's confidence. Which ties in with Sonny being a streaky player.

Take his goal against Brentford the other night. It didn't look like much on first viewing, but it was actually a very good finish. He lofts his shot over the keeper and high into the net. It's so hard to get the power right at pace, and he'd have looked a right pillock if he blasted it over.

Tell you what, re-watching the highlights Spurs TV have put on YouTube has also reminded me how good Sonny's corners are getting too. Quality player.
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He may just be streaky but if so this current streak has streaked longer than the streakiest of streaky streaks ever streaked.:D
 
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MKSpur said:
Does this link to the nature of the way we now play is that we have less chances, but as many of them come on the counter they are better chances. So they are more likely to be one on ones with the keeper rather than trying to bend the ball past a defender or win a duel in the air? Is xG solely on the position of the ball when shooting agnostic of defenders position?

It does confirm what I’ve always felt about Sterling not being a reliable finisher, surprised Aguero is quite low in the list though.
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Bullet said:
Precisely, there is a MASSIVE difference between being 20 yards out faced with 8 defenders, or just a keeper on a breakaway.
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I just compared their numbers with the ones at FBRef and they match up, so both are probably using the Statsbomb numbers.

That means they take into account the position of defenders, keeper, whether the play is in transition, speed of the break, etc.

They're not perfect and can never gather everything but if Son is outperforming their numbers then he's genuinely outperforming xG.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...ming-Lionel-Messi-Cristiano-Ronaldo-2016.html
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That article still sells Son short a little because it highlights his role in Tottenham's counter-attacking style. But this has really only been a significant factor since Jose arrived 14 months ago.

Prior to that we were more often than not up against teams that parked the bus, making the chances of a breakaway goal much more difficult.

Neither does it factor in that goals are generally easier to come by in the European leagues where the overall competition is widely accepted to be much less fierce overall.

Finally, pretty much every other striker on that list plays for a team that has won multiple trophies, whilst Sonny boy is more often up against much stronger teams that have the resources to bring in a squad full of the the world's top players.
 
Spur of the moment said:
That article still sells Son short a little because it highlights his role in Tottenham's counter-attacking style. But this has really only been a significant factor since Jose arrived 14 months ago.

Prior to that we were more often than not up against teams that parked the bus, making the chances of a breakaway goal much more difficult.

Neither does it factor in that goals are generally easier to come by in the European leagues where the overall competition is widely accepted to be much less fierce overall.

Finally, pretty much every other striker on that list plays for a team that has won multiple trophies, whilst Sonny boy is more often up against much stronger teams that have the resources to bring in a squad full of the the world's top players.
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A pundit mentioned it recently and I really agree

- people have an impression of Son from his first two seasons with Spurs, i.e. good top 6 player

What people have missed (and imo even some of the people on this thread), is he has improved every season, the misses, the not making passes, the lack of consistency, all pretty much addressed.

I don't see a side in the PL or Europe he doesn't walk into
 
Fulham match showed why we cannot rely on only Kane and Son for the goals. Son was out-of-sorts in this match and nothing went right for him. Before the Kane goal, Son really should have scored the header but put it straight at the goalie then he hit the post from a chance which he normally scores and then caused Reguilon's goal ruled offside. We need multiple goal scorers. For example, Liverpool have Salah, Mane, Jota and Firminho, When 1 or 2 of them are out of form, they have others to cover. We don't have such luxury. When Kane and Son don't score goals, we are in trouble.
 
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