Hoffenheim v Tottenham: Son Heung-Min to lead Spurs to victory in Germany | OneFootball

UEFA Europa League

Son Heung-Min should be Tottenham's catalyst on the night

Ange Postecoglou's side need to halt their losing run in midweek, and Jamie Kemp is backing Son Heung-Min to lead them to a much needed victory back on familiar ground...

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Hoffenheim v Tottenham HotspurThursday 23 January, 17:45Live on TNT Sports 2

Spurs need Goodison Park response

With their Premier League campaign fading into obscurity - and potenitally oblivion - the Europa League is starting to take on more importance for Spurs and manager Ange Postecoglou.

Indeed, according to Opta's predictor model, they currently have less than a 1% chance of finishing in the top six this season. By comparison, they have a 10% chance of winning the Europa League, with only Lazio (20%) and Athletic Bilbao (17%) more favoured via Opta's predictive data.

After another stinging defeat against Everton at the weekend, it goes without saying that Spurs and Postecoglou can't afford much more by the way of losses - especially those without much resistance. Across their last 18 matches, they have lost almost twice as often as they have won (W5 D4 L9). A third successive defeat here would mark their longest losing run since May.

At the very least, Spurs need to be able to perform and be competitive in one of the competitions they're still involved in. Of course, the Carabao Cup could also serve that purpose for them, but going to Anfield for the second leg still looks like a tall order for them in their current state. Staying in a strong position in the Europa League has to be a priority, too, and it's in their interests to avoid the play-off round of the knockout stages.

Spurs haven't been massively impressive in Europe this season, but their injury crisis and Postecoglou's rotation has clearly had an influence. Now they're into the business end of qualification, however, it makes sense for them to go as strong as they feasibly can for this one.

Hoffenheim only have one win in six Europa League games this term (D3 L2), and are winless in their last four in the competition (D2 L2). Across all formats, meanwhile, the German side have only won one of their previous 10 matches (D3 L6) - that was against newly-promoted Holsten Kiel in the Bundesliga.

Of course, winning in comfort hasn't tended to happen much for Postecoglou's Spurs of late. Postecoglou's side have both scored and conceded in all three away games in the Europa League this term (5 for, 5 against), while a lack of clean sheets has been a trend for the Australian throughout his coaching career in European competition too. Across his time with Celtic and Spurs, he's yet to see his side keep a clean sheet in 13 away matches in Europe (31 conceded).

I don't expect that to change here, but Spurs should still be able to salvage enough quality from their squad to come out on top. With the necessity to provide a much-improved performance, Postecoglou should go with his strongest hand and bank on still having enough to get by Leicester at home at the weekend.

Back Son Heung-Min to lead Spurs resistance

Dominic Solanke and Brennan Johnson will both be unavailable due to injury, reducing Postecoglou's options across the front line for Thursday's game. Timo Werner - a player they would ordinarily look to in balancing league and European minutes - will also miss out here.

With that in mind, it should be a game for Spurs to lean on Son Heung-Min. The 32-year-old is already a valuable experienced head for them at times like this, and he's played a lot of football in Germany to boot. If this game happens to follow the script of end-to-end attacking, in some sort of fusion of Bundesliga and Postecoglou-type football, then he should be in business to make the difference here.

Of course, it's not been an entirely prolific season for Son so far. His overall record stands at eight goals in 23 appearances across all competitions this term, while three of his teammates have outscored him so far (Johnson, Solanke and Kulusevski). Despite that, Son (2.3) has still been averaging more shots per 90 than every Spurs player bar Brennan Johnson (2.8). His goalscoring dip hasn't come about through a lack of volume, nor can we ignore the role that Spurs's team-wide struggles have played.

What's more, Son has landed at least one shot on target in 12 of his last 14 starts for Spurs across all competitions. And across the campaign as a whole, he has still sat above the average of one shot on target per start, registering 26 in 23 matches in the initial XI.

Son almost always finds his way into troubling the opposition goalkeeper, and that's including a lot of poor performances from his team throughout 2024-25. In a game away to German opposition, where transition opportunities are likely to be on the menu, I fancy him to make his mark by the time the whistle goes.

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