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Son Heung-Min

Appreciate the nit picking combined with historic trivia. Have at it at any of my posts at least.

While we're nitpicking...

As you point out one in ten, but significantly more brutal than a pulled hamstring, or even a ruptured ACL. So actually our injury situation has been much better than decimation. Had Ange or Levy implemented Roman style decimation on the squad the one in ten would obviously not be looking at a recovery in this life and it may have had a rather negative impact on both the other players and our recruitment.
Touché! And quite correct: a pulled hammy is far easier to recover from than death.
 
You are head and shoulders the most grumpy bitter miserable git on this forum, fact.
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If he is at the club next season then not playing international football would be beneficial.

You are head and shoulders the most antagonist git on this forum, not a fact. Because its an opinion and no way to quantify as an actual fact.
 

Son Heung-min is the best finisher in world football. In fact, he has been for the better part of a decade.​


- Since the 2016/17 season, nobody has overperformed on their expected goals (xG) tally to the same degree as Son Heung-min in terms of percentages.

- he has overperformed on his xG total in every single season from that campaign onwards.

- In his Golden Boot-winning season a year earlier however, Son netted 23 times from an xG of 16.99, representing a 35.3% overperformance.

- Son's 22 career league goals from outside the area have come from a cumulative xG of just 9.13, meaning he has scored a staggering 12.87 more than a mere mortal would have from the same attempts.

- 44.2% of all Son's goals for Spurs have been first-time finishes and an incredible 67.9% came from either first or second-time finishes, that's more than 2 in every 3.

- The average number of touches he has taken before a successful attempt on goal works out to just 1.17.

- When you zero in on just this season under Ange Postecoglou, as Jon's assessment of the Australian's tactics would suggest, this number falls to just 0.58.

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- Statistically, Haaland is actually a relatively average to slightly-above-average finisher, with only negligible xG overperformances registered throughout his young career to date. (and other comparisons with Hwang Hee Chan, Jota, Salah etc. )

GHod only knows what he is capable of if we made him the central point in attack consistently and a strategy that takes advantage of his speed and first time shooting ability.

 

Son Heung-min is the best finisher in world football. In fact, he has been for the better part of a decade.​


- Since the 2016/17 season, nobody has overperformed on their expected goals (xG) tally to the same degree as Son Heung-min in terms of percentages.

- he has overperformed on his xG total in every single season from that campaign onwards.

- In his Golden Boot-winning season a year earlier however, Son netted 23 times from an xG of 16.99, representing a 35.3% overperformance.

- Son's 22 career league goals from outside the area have come from a cumulative xG of just 9.13, meaning he has scored a staggering 12.87 more than a mere mortal would have from the same attempts.

- 44.2% of all Son's goals for Spurs have been first-time finishes and an incredible 67.9% came from either first or second-time finishes, that's more than 2 in every 3.

- The average number of touches he has taken before a successful attempt on goal works out to just 1.17.

- When you zero in on just this season under Ange Postecoglou, as Jon's assessment of the Australian's tactics would suggest, this number falls to just 0.58.

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- Statistically, Haaland is actually a relatively average to slightly-above-average finisher, with only negligible xG overperformances registered throughout his young career to date. (and other comparisons with Hwang Hee Chan, Jota, Salah etc. )

GHod only knows what he is capable of if we made him the central point in attack consistently and a strategy that takes advantage of his speed and first time shooting ability.

I think the "problem" with Haaland is that he makes so many shooting opportunities himself by muscling defenders out of the way. Once he's clear, he's got a pretty high xG shot to put away.

Whereas Sonny is generally a two-touch (or fewer) finisher, rather than driving forward to a more scorable position. Which isn't to put him down - if you're able to score worldies from outside the box, why not have a crack?!

Or at least, that's my understanding of how xG works.

Good to see Werner up with the superstars on that list - based on hearsay, I'd have put him a lot lower...but I suppose most of his goals have been scored away from Chelsea!
 
I think the "problem" with Haaland is that he makes so many shooting opportunities himself by muscling defenders out of the way. Once he's clear, he's got a pretty high xG shot to put away.

Whereas Sonny is generally a two-touch (or fewer) finisher, rather than driving forward to a more scorable position. Which isn't to put him down - if you're able to score worldies from outside the box, why not have a crack?!

Or at least, that's my understanding of how xG works.

Good to see Werner up with the superstars on that list - based on hearsay, I'd have put him a lot lower...but I suppose most of his goals have been scored away from Chelsea!
Well Son has less often been played as a striker so he doesn't find himself in the most opportune shooting positions as often as someone like a Haaland will find themselves. So yes he is taking statistically more difficult chances on average and finishing them very well.

Best finisher in Europe is quite a stat, i'd love him, to be the one in the penalty box receiving the passes but while Richie is on form we will have to just go with that.
 
I think the "problem" with Haaland is that he makes so many shooting opportunities himself by muscling defenders out of the way. Once he's clear, he's got a pretty high xG shot to put away.

Whereas Sonny is generally a two-touch (or fewer) finisher, rather than driving forward to a more scorable position. Which isn't to put him down - if you're able to score worldies from outside the box, why not have a crack?!

Or at least, that's my understanding of how xG works.

Good to see Werner up with the superstars on that list - based on hearsay, I'd have put him a lot lower...but I suppose most of his goals have been scored away from Chelsea!

Haaland is what happens when you put an elite striker in that City side (Sterling would score 18 goals for City).

Personal opinion is Son & Kane would outperform him in the that same side, and Son would actually have been a better fit to Pep's ideal setup.
 

This is funny because there is a bit of a vibe of "wE gOt ThE Win WhY aRe yOu CoMpLaiNinG!?!?" but then you've got the club captain reacting like this during the game and also Ange who has stated there was a lot that he didn't like in the performance post match.

It was frustrating at times (possibly increased frustration personally as it's nigh impossible to find a decent stream without signing up to sone flimflam). I've seen a few saying we're on the verge of clicking and destroying a few teams, I hope they're right but I'm not sure myself. Even with full weeks rest in between games we're still often starting in a very sluggish manner and it feels like we're carrying Bentancur and Maddison in to form ATM.

Back to Son though has much been made of his cross, it was magnificent as it had to be pinpoint to get it through to Johnson. As predicted it's great being able to have the likes of him and Brennan on the bench.
 
This is funny because there is a bit of a vibe of "wE gOt ThE Win WhY aRe yOu CoMpLaiNinG!?!?" but then you've got the club captain reacting like this during the game and also Ange who has stated there was a lot that he didn't like in the performance post match.

It was frustrating at times (possibly increased frustration personally as it's nigh impossible to find a decent stream without signing up to sone flimflam). I've seen a few saying we're on the verge of clicking and destroying a few teams, I hope they're right but I'm not sure myself. Even with full weeks rest in between games we're still often starting in a very sluggish manner and it feels like we're carrying Bentancur and Maddison in to form ATM.

Back to Son though has much been made of his cross, it was magnificent as it had to be pinpoint to get it through to Johnson. As predicted it's great being able to have the likes of him and Brennan on the bench.

All valid, a few observations

- We had 20 minutes in that 2nd half where you saw what we could be, Brighton was backs to wall and that was before Son came on.
- Yes, Maddison & Bentancur are nowhere up to speed yet
- I think the team has actually learnt how to do without a lot of players, now it's got to learn to be a unit again.
- Three weeks or so ago we had 3 GKs, 3 academy kids and a not even a full allotment on the bench. Next week it's likely two of Skipp/PEH/GLC/Gil will not even make bench.
 
I think the "problem" with Haaland is that he makes so many shooting opportunities himself by muscling defenders out of the way. Once he's clear, he's got a pretty high xG shot to put away.

Whereas Sonny is generally a two-touch (or fewer) finisher, rather than driving forward to a more scorable position. Which isn't to put him down - if you're able to score worldies from outside the box, why not have a crack?!

Or at least, that's my understanding of how xG works.

Good to see Werner up with the superstars on that list - based on hearsay, I'd have put him a lot lower...but I suppose most of his goals have been scored away from Chelsea!
Haven't seen stats for it but I would guess the majority of Haaland's goals are also two touch or fewer finishes.

Haaland gets more scoring chances and better scoring chances imo. Partly because of the teams he's played for, but mostly because he's really good at that part too.

It does raise the question of how many Son would score as the main goalscorer centrally for a team creating a lot of chances.

I think part of the reason for Son being that high up the list is that he's about as close to two footed as you can get without being Ivan Perisic. And xG doesn't take into account what foot is used I believe, or if the angle is good for a player's stronger foot or not.

As good as Son is there's essentially no way he's a better finisher with his right than Messi is/was with his left. But he's significantly better than just about everyone with his weaker foot.

Understat has him with 50 goals with his left, from an xG of 35.5. 14.5 + on his xG with his "weaker" foot. Haven't seen stats for other players on that, but I think that's exceptionally rare.
 
All valid, a few observations

- We had 20 minutes in that 2nd half where you saw what we could be, Brighton was backs to wall and that was before Son came on.
- Yes, Maddison & Bentancur are nowhere up to speed yet
- I think the team has actually learnt how to do without a lot of players, now it's got to learn to be a unit again.
- Three weeks or so ago we had 3 GKs, 3 academy kids and a not even a full allotment on the bench. Next week it's likely two of Skipp/PEH/GLC/Gil will not even make bench.

We saw flashes of the potential, definitely agreed on that. As everyone knows though it's one thing having a decent 20 minute period but doing it over the course of the match.

Not to take it too far off topic but with Bentancur at least we can hopefully rotate him and then we've got a 2 week break.

My point was that Son's frustrated reactions on the bench aren't far off the often over emotional moans we see in the match thread and Ange himself has called it how he has seen it consistently and often doesn't give off the impression of being happy with the performances even when we grab a result. It's the moaning about moaning, as if fans aren't allowed to voice reasonable observations if they are negative. Some of the moaning was of course OTT ie slating Brennan before his goal / saying he's a waste of money etc It's total gonad*s.

It's a nice thought to say "We're definitely going to smash some teams sooner or later" and it'll be a popular view on here no doubt, but it's going to take some time and the right circumstances, obviously we're not blowing teams away left right and centre but fortunately I don't think we're viewed as easy to play against either.

That fight to just get on the bench for certain players is great news. We went in to the season under prepared mixed with a bit of misfortune (suspensions and AFCON / Asia cup are not examples of misfortune) but with some decisive action in January there's a healthier amount of competition across the team. Going in to the start of the season with Dier / Royal one injury away from starting at CB was borderline negligence so it's not really a surprise we flopped in the cups and had the wheels fall off once we lost a couple of important players but I genuinely am already looking forward to next season with what we now have in place.
 
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Haven't seen stats for it but I would guess the majority of Haaland's goals are also two touch or fewer finishes.

Haaland gets more scoring chances and better scoring chances imo. Partly because of the teams he's played for, but mostly because he's really good at that part too.

It does raise the question of how many Son would score as the main goalscorer centrally for a team creating a lot of chances.

I think part of the reason for Son being that high up the list is that he's about as close to two footed as you can get without being Ivan Perisic. And xG doesn't take into account what foot is used I believe, or if the angle is good for a player's stronger foot or not.

As good as Son is there's essentially no way he's a better finisher with his right than Messi is/was with his left. But he's significantly better than just about everyone with his weaker foot.

Understat has him with 50 goals with his left, from an xG of 35.5. 14.5 + on his xG with his "weaker" foot. Haven't seen stats for other players on that, but I think that's exceptionally rare.
Some good points in there. One thing to note is Messi takes fewer "bad" shots if you get what I mean. If it's not really on for him to score, he'll instead pass it to someone else. Which in a roundabout way will effect how much he over scores xG.
 
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