▲ In this Reuters photo, head coach Antonio Conte is hugging Tottenham's player Son Heung-min. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Apr. 16 (Yonhap) -- Antonio Conte, the head coach of Son Heung-min’s English Premier League(EPL) Tottenham, complimented the player saying, "Son is Heung-min is at the peak of his form but can still improve."

"Sonny for us is a really important player and at the peak of his form," explained Conte in an interview published in Football London, Saturday.

"But he can improve, and that is my expectation," adding, "I asked my best players, my more representative players, that now the team needed this type of player to take on the more important responsibilities," emphasized Conte.

Son scored a hat-trick and led the team to a 4-0 win against Aston Villa on Apr. 10. The player came in second with 17 EPL goals for the season, three back of Mohamed Salah of Liverpool, and steps up to become the first Asian player to win the Premier League, top scorer.

Son will try to score once again for four consecutive games against Brighton & Hove Albion on April 16 at 8:30 p.m. (KST).

"Son is not only a top player, but he is a really good guy. When you speak with him, not only about football, it is good," the coach added.

Conte also highly praised the attitude of the main players, by saying, "In the last game, if Sonny had scored three goals and we had lost 4-3, the player cannot be happy. We want to help Sonny to break every record and it was the same with Harry Kane. But they know very well that the team comes before the individual’s goal tally."

Conte, who took the Tottenham job in Nov. 2021, added, “A month ago, people answered me by saying that I had to be crazy to think of giving a rest to Sonny and put him on the bench because we are talking about a really important player for us.”

The head coach also mentioned Harry Kane, who hasn’t managed to find the back of the net, "I think it is important for us to have many solutions to get three points and to win,” adding, “If you only have one player to score it could be simple for your opponent to stop him with two or three men and then the game has finished.”

Conte complimented the player, "It is good to score but at the same time it is really good to make assists and he has an important vision of football and for us he is an important player. Harry is the first person to enjoy other players scoring."

(This article is translated from Korean to English by An Hayeon.)

(END)

 

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]