Tottenham revived at the threshold of an unexpected event.
Tottenham won a dramatic 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Coventry City in the third round of the 2024-2025 Carabao Cup at the Coventry Building Society Arena in England on the 19th (Korea time).
Son started on the bench. Coach Enze Postecoglou rested his key players and organized the starting lineup mainly for young players. As many as eight players have been replaced compared to the starting lineup against Arsenal in the fourth round of the English Premier League (EPL) on the 15th.
Just like against Arsenal, Destiny Udoji, Rodrigo Bentancur and Dominic Solanke were the only starters. In a 4-3-3 formation, Wilson O'Dowbert, Solanke and Timo Werner built a three-top.
Bentancuru, Pape Sarr and Lucas Beribal were in the midfield, while Archie Gray, Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies and Udoji lined up in the defensive line. The goal was defended by Fraser Foster, who returned from injury.
However, there was no reversal of frustrating performance. To make matters worse, O'Dober was replaced by Brennan Johnson in the 18th minute due to injury.
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Postecoglou tried to make a late change. At the start of the second half, he transfused Zed Spence instead of Udoji, and Son Heung-min and James Maddison without Solanke and Beribal in the 17th minute.
However, he suddenly allowed the first goal in the 18th minute of the second half. Thomas Asante finished with his right foot on Norman Bassett's cross from the left. Tottenham, whose feet were on fire, put Dejan Kulusevski in place of Werner in the 29th minute of the second half. I was desperate. But Coventry still led the game.
Still, the dignity of the first part was different. Tottenham's reversal began in the 43rd minute of the second half. Spence equalized Kulusevski's pass. Then, in the 47th minute of extra time in the second half, Johnson finished Bentancourt's through pass, changing the trend.
Son Heung-min, who was substituted and played for about 30 minutes, did not perform much. He didn't try any shots and dribbles, and he only sprayed passes occasionally.
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"I thought it was a typical League Cup game," Postecoglou said. I really liked Coventry. They put real energy into the game, and we couldn't get it right. We had to work really, really hard to stay in the game. He made it even more challenging after the first run"We showed true spirit and individuality at the end. That was probably what was lacking in the first four league games. We produced results, but we failed to persevere to achieve results. In the last ten minutes we have taken real faith from it, and hopefully it will be a good sign moving forward."
In the meantime, he analyzed that the reason for Tottenham's poor performance in England's 'Sky Sports' is the poor performance of its main players, including Son Heung-min. The main players including Son Heung-min are struggling for the game. When captain Son Heung-min left the stadium after failing to score a shot against Arsenal, fans could hear Postecoglou questioning his inability to leave Son out.
And Son scored two goals in the 4-0 win over Everton at home. However, this game was only one of the three games Son Heung-min scored in 13 league games since late March. Figures also compared Son's slump around April this year.
By April, he had 2.78 shots, 1.29 effective shots, an average of 0.62 goals, 0.33 assists, and 7.01 touches per game in the opponent's box, but after April, he had only 1.90 shots and 0.95 effective shots, and his average score was 0.32 goals, 0.16 assists, and the number of ball touches in the opponent's box was reduced to 6.5 times.
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Center back Christian Romero was also on the cutting board. 'Sky Sports' is a problem as well as 'Romero. Argentina international Romero has wowed fans with his typical good performance, but he continues to falter at important moments. The mistake of allowing Gabriel Magalyangis to score the first goal was similar to that of Jamie Vardy against Leicester City and Alexander Isaac against Newcastle.
Postecoglou reiterated that he hoped the Coventry match would be a turnaround. I said I don't think there's a quick fix or an easy reversal, but I think tonight we showed a lot of similarities to what we showed last year. Last year we showed a lot of personality and spirit to win the soccer game"We held out the game, and we won a lot of second-half games. I felt that the first four games were probably a little short. So if we can perform at the level we showed in the league tonight, with the facts we did and the way we did, add a little bit of persistence and willingness to win the game, that will certainly help us."
