Premier League legend has theory on angry Son Heung-min reaction as poor Tottenham form continues

Premier League legend Alan Shearer claims Son Heung-min was right to be upset with Antonio Conte’s decision to take him off in the 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

The South Korean forward, who was the joint Premier League Golden Boot winner last season, was hooked after 74 minutes at the City Ground when the game was still in the balance at 1-0 to the visitors.

Hie replacement Richarlison then set up the crucial second goal for Harry Kane to seal the three points.

Son remains without a goal in Spurs’ first four games of the campaign and looks short of confidence in front of goal.

But his reaction to Conte bringing him off in Nottingham was a surprising one from the normally jovial striker.

Son was seen ranting and waving his arms around as he sat on the bench and Shearer fully understands why.

Speaking to Optus Sport, he said: “I was really interested in Son’s reaction to being substituted.

“I totally understand it and I think that’s a good thing. He’s shown his anger that he doesn’t want to come off because there are still goals at stake and chances. And he realises that Richarlison’s not there just to sit on the bench, he wants to be in the game as well.

“There’s anger because he feels that someone else should come off, take someone else off, not him.

“I don’t see that as being a problem, I think it’s a good thing. You can see his reaction. He’s just not happy at all and rightly so – ‘take someone else off but not me!'”

Kane backs Son to come good

Kane also addressed Son’s struggles after the match when interviewed by Sky Sports.

The England skipper said: “We have a lot of games coming up so we’re going to need everyone, of course Sonny is frustrated with not scoring but he’s an important player for us.

“If we want to achieve anything this season, we need Sonny to keep doing what he’s doing. He’ll pop up with goals no doubt. But also when players are not quite at it you need players off the bench and Richy’s definitely doing that.”

Tottenham boss Conte is also unconcerned by Conte’s struggles, adding: “I think no problem with Sonny’s performance, his attitude and commitment is always up very high. I’m happy with his performance and I don’t see any problems with him.

“For sure, you know very well when you’re a striker you like to score. And when you score and win you’re happy. But at the same time we always have to put the club winning before the interests of every single player. But it’s not a problem.”

Son will be hoping to finally get his season started at West Ham on Wednesday evening as Tottenham look to continue their impressive opening to the campaign.

READ MORE: Harry Kane says Tottenham must ‘quickly’ fix sloppy trend that Conte ‘can’t afford’ to let linger