New Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou on Tuesday spoke in glowing terms of winger Son Heung-min and the huge influence the South Korean has on his team-mates at the Premier League club.
Speaking a day ahead of his team’s pre-season match against local side Lion City Sailors at Singapore’s National Stadium, the Australian lauded Son’s talents as a player and leader.
“I’ve known Sonny really well for a really long time and I think he’s an outstanding player,” said the former Australia national manager.
“When you talk about wingers who are a goal threat, he’s elite and as good as anyone. He has that ability of playing wide and playing one-on-one but the fact that he scores goals is just priceless. I’m really looking forward to working with him.”
Ange also lavished praise on Son for his leadership qualities.
“I look at him and he’s pretty much the conduit for the whole squad because he mixes in well and he is well respected for what he’s done in the game,” he said.
“It’s good to see that he has a massive influence on the group which doesn’t surprise me because I know he’s been a leader and a sort of icon for his nation for a very long time and he carries himself really well. He has got enormous respect amongst the playing group which is great to see.”
Another player who came in for praise from the Australian was young midfielder Oliver Skipp, who joined Tottenham’s pre-season tour to the Asia-Pacific almost immediately after helping England win the European Under-21 Championship earlier this month.
“We gave him the option and I was more than prepared for him to miss this trip. But in the back of my mind, I like the fact that he came back early,” said Postecoglou.
“It didn’t surprise me but it was the decision he made. And he’s been great and obviously with less time off, he’s in real good physical condition and he’s adapting really well to the way we’re training.”
Following the cancellation of their friendly against Leicester City in Bangkok on Sunday, Postecoglou spoke of his players putting in extra work training to make up for the lack of match action.
“It was not ideal but we just needed to adjust and it’s fair to say that the players probably paid the biggest price because they worked really hard the past couple of days to compensate for the fact we didn’t have a game,” he said.
“Obviously the conditions here are still quite humid and warm but we had a double session today and a strong session yesterday so we’re trying to compensate. We would have preferred to have the game of course but these are the things in life you have to find solutions for.”
