Heung-Min Son’s form: What’s going wrong for the Tottenham forward this season as he struggles for goals?

After four defeats in seven games, everyone at Tottenham is under scrutiny. But nobody typifies the team’s troubles more than the reigning Premier League golden boot winner. Heung-Min Son is enduring the worst run of form in his Spurs career.

He scored 23 league goals last season but there is little hope of a repeat. Son has only three goals in 15 Premier League appearances – and all of them came as a second-half substitute against Leicester. What has gone wrong for the popular Korean forward?

At 30, there will be fears he is on the wane but maybe the workload has caught up with him. There was a summer tour of South Korea and a race to fit for the World Cup that saw him play with a facemask following a broken cheekbone. He has played a lot of football.

“This season, especially up top, we have players,” said Antonio Conte earlier this season. “Rotation is good for the team and player welfare.” And yet, injuries to Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski have led to Son trying in vain to play his way back into some form.

The one Premier League game for which he was benched just happens to be the one Premier League game in which he has scored – and it was a hat-trick at that.

Only three forwards have started more Premier League games since 2016. “Every player wants to play every game but you lose physical and mental energy,” said Conte. “Sometimes you don’t understand this and think you can play but the performance goes down.”

Son certainly looks below his best. In the 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa on Sunday, he appeared bereft of confidence, his lack of belief seeping into every aspect of his game. A sloppy touch here, an overhit pass there, nothing seemed to come off for him.

There was a wonderful opportunity to play Harry Kane through on goal in the first half but instead of a measured pass to slide in his teammate, the ball flew off his foot. Too much spin, too much loft, too much pace. Kane could only look back at him in frustration.

Even that partnership, statistically the most successful in Premier League history, looks less than fluent right now. It relies on Son making those off-the-ball movements that Kane can find so well. Perhaps their skill-sets will not mesh so well as the two men age.

It is not just the goals, however. Other elements are not functioning as they might. Throughout his Tottenham career, he has been a ball carrier and a supplier of goals too. But the numbers show that there has been a decline in both areas of his game.

This is a player who ranks among the top dozen players in the Premier League for chances created from open play and completed dribbles since 2016. On both metrics, he is currently performing at his lowest level across those seven seasons.

His lack of dribbling success might be considered a natural evolution at the age of 30 – that is largely a young man’s game. But there is a theory that the decline in some of Son’s other numbers can be partially explained by a tactical change at Tottenham.

In addition to that hat-trick against Leicester, he scored two goals in a Champions League win at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. They are his only five goals for Spurs this season. One thing both of those matches had in common is that Ivan Perisic was not on the pitch.

Could it be that the presence of the Croatian does not suit Son? The attack-minded left wing-back takes up some of the spaces that he likes to occupy. It leads to Son coming into crowded areas in-field or hanging back out wide as Perisic races forward.

This is a big change because Perisic is much more forward thinking than the alternatives that Spurs have had in that role. He is having twice as many touches in the opposition penalty box per 90 minutes compared to Sergio Reguilon, his predecessor in that position.

There was a good example in the defeat to Villa of how it is Perisic now making the runs that Son once made. Spurs’ best chance came from Perisic running through before setting up Kane. Son was stood out wide. He is having fewer touches in the box than ever before.

All of which paints a bleak picture but it is not so black and white. Though many of the underlying numbers are down, they are not this far down. Son’s dip in output can only be partially explained by other factors. Ultimately, his own poor finishing has been a big factor.

“I am OK,” said Son when discussing his form in early September. “If I am honest, if I was not getting chances in the game, I would be worried but I am still getting chances. In some games, there have been unlucky moments. In some games, it has been a bad finish.”

He is actually having more shots per 90 minutes than in any of the previous three seasons, although the quality of those opportunities is somewhat lower than before. The biggest difference is that Son had consistently outperformed expected goals previously.

His total of 23 goals last season came despite an anticipated return of 15.8 based on the quality of those chances. He took only 86 shots – the fewest by any golden boot winner in over a decade. He outperformed his expected goals for a sixth season in a row.

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Now, for the first time in his Tottenham career, it is his finishing that is letting him down. A chance is scuffed, another attempt is skied. A player who is renowned for being comfortable with either foot is suddenly looking less than assured on either of them.

Some will blame Conte. Spurs could certainly be more expansive. But it was under Conte that Son won the golden boot. A defensive approach has never stifled him before. Playing on the counter-attack suited him. Maybe it reflects a change in his own game.

What is certain is that everything – from the workload to the tactics, from the evolution in his game to his lack of confidence in it – has combined to give us the worst version of Son that anyone can remember. Finding a way out of it will be key for him and for Spurs.