Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-Min could have replaced Sadio Mane at Liverpool.
That’s according to TalkSPORT pundit Dean Saunders. The former Liverpool striker admitted today that he had expected Son to be ‘the one’ The Reds targeted to step into Mane’s shoes.
“When Mane was leaving Liverpool, I thought there are only a couple of players who could replace him, and I thought Son [Heung-min] would have been the one,” said Saunders.
Instead, Liverpool had already replaced Mane with Luis Diaz in January. Darwin Nunez also came in to give Jurgen Klopp even more options up-front.
Son a perfect fit, but Liverpool looking to youth
Coming off the back of yet another successful season with Spurs, there’s no doubt that Son would have been a celebrated signing for Liverpool.
The South Korean shared the Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah last year – his seventh season in the Premier League. In all but one of those season’s he’s managed to get into double figures in terms of goals.
Widen the scope out to all competitions, and his record for Tottenham is absolutely excellent. Son has scored over 20 goals in four of the seven campaigns since his £22m arrival..
His scoring record isn’t dissimilar to Mane’s at Liverpool in fact. There aren’t too many wide players who could say the same, so it’s clear why Son would seem like a natural fit to replace the Senegalese.
However, like Mane, Son is now 30-years-old. Liverpool needed to refresh their forward line by bringing in some younger players yet to reach their peak. That’s exactly what they did.
It’s still early days in the season, but Son is so far struggling to re-create his form of the last years. Seven games in, he’s still yet to score for Antonio Conte’s side.
Diaz on the other hand bagged his fourth of the campaign last week. That’s not to say Son wouldn’t have sparkled at Liverpool, he surely would. But we wouldn’t swap Diaz for the world.
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