Son Heung-Min has urged the Tottenham Hotspur board to back manager Antonio Conte.
Tottenham are on the back of a 3 – 1 loss to neighbours Arsenal in the Premier League and a less than impressive 0 – 0 draw away at Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Champions League and Son Heung-Min insists that the coach needs all the support he can get.
Recent performances have led to the criticism of Conte’s “defensive” tactics. In fact, ahead of their UCL tie with Frankfurt, Conte had to defend his tactics. However, the goalless draw in Germany has done little to quell the noise.
However, Son Heung-Min has offered support for his coach, insisting that he always demands more from his players.
“It’s important – last season nobody believed we would be here right now, nobody believed we’d be in the Champions League. The gaffer always wants more, more, more – and as a player I want to follow his way, or you know what’s coming,” Son told journalists after the draw in Frankfurt.
“If we don’t follow him, then you know you’ll struggle. We have to follow – there is no option because he’s a winner and I think we have to sacrifice and do the hard things.”
Son continued: “We’re human, we’re all emotional. Sometimes after the game we’re all happy and sometimes we’re all angry or frustrated. The gaffer is more passionate – if we win, he’s like the happiest guy in the world. But if the performance is not good and he’s not happy, he’s the first one blaming himself and wanting to improve.
“As a team, as a great group, we have to stick together in these tough games. I think these criticisms are because the expectations are higher. We need to do much better than we did but I’m still believing that we can.”
On his own poor displays, last season’s Premier League top scorer added: “Individually I always want to do better. I’ve never been happy with my performance because I always want to do better things, amazing things but it doesn’t always happen like that. I’m always watching [back] my games to see what I can do, what I can improve.
We’ve had two really tough games this week but this season is still long, so it’s not an issue. It’s all in your mind and we need to move on, even with these kind of tough games.”
