The stats behind Heung-Min Son’s sluggish start to the season.

We’ve dived into the stats to find out why Son has been struggling to find his form this season.

How last season went for Son: 

Last season was another sublime season for Son as he won the Premier League Golden Boot with 23 goals shared with Mo Salah and also assisted a further 9 goals.
His partnership with Harry Kane and Kulusewski last season made them the league's most dangerous trio and Son was mentioned as a potential player of the year winner. 

Son’s 23 goals in the Premier League was all goals in open play and therefore no penalty goals, which give Son 5 more non-penalty goals than Liverpool’s Mo Salah and 8 more than Cristiano Ronaldo. 

His form last season gave him a 11th place in this years Ballon d’Or award, a ranking that could have been higher if he continued his form this season.

Son ended the campaign with 24 goals and 10 assists across all competitions. 

Son’s struggles this season: 

Heung-min son has played 12 premier league games this season and it’s only in 1 game that he has left the field as a goal scorer, this happened when he scored a hat-trick against Leicester back in September.
Richarlison and Perisic was brought in this summer, quality players who has a good record of goals and assists, but the offensive partnership with Son has not worked so far and with Kulusewski injured there is absolutely room for improvement. 

Last season he was averaging a goal every 131 minutes and so far, this season his scoring ratio has decreased to a goal every 315 minute. 

He is taking an average of 2.8 shots per game, which actually is more than last season’s 2,5 shots per game. 
Son has averaged 1.8 key passes per game, which is down from the 2.1 he was averaging last season. 
Son hasn’t had the drive in his game that he had last season, last season he was challenging in his style of play, he dared to challenge his direct opponent which you saw in his average dribbles per game (1,5), so far this season it’s only 0.7 dribbles per game. 

Stats show that Son is less in the box this year and that he is looking more out to the left side. One of the reasons for this is that Son has started to participate more in the build-up game because Tottenham have often lacked a bit of creativity in the offensive.
Last season, Harry Kane and Kulusewski were good at playing Son depth and they need to get back to this in order to become a fearsome trio again.

Son’s 2022-23 stats so far:

Games: 12

Key passes per 90: 1.8

Dribbles per 90: 0.7

Shots per 90: 2.8

Passes per 90: 20.8