Tottenham Hotspur 2023-24 Player of the Season: Son Heung-Min
Tottenham Hotspur 2023-24 Player of the Season: Son Heung-Min
Talk to Tottenham Hotspur fans about who should be named Tottenham Hotspur’s 2023-24 Player of the Season and you’ll get differing opinions. Cristian Romero has improved his defensive efficacy while drastically reducing the number of yellow and red cards received, and has also contributed some thumping headers. New signing Micky van de Ven has impressed fans with his blazing recovery speed along with his penchant for adding the occasional long-range goal. Same too with Pedro Porro, who has blasted in a number of bangers while becoming one of the best right backs in the league, inverted or otherwise. Guglielmo Vicario has taken a bit to adapt to the Premier League, but has likewise made some outstanding stops while safely commanding his area and facilitating Ange Postecoglou’s team with playing out of the back.
None of them are the Cartilage Free Captain masthead’s player of the season. Instead, our award goes to the player who has both scored and assisted the joint-most goals this season and who has assumed the mantle of club captain in the absence of Harry Kane — Son Heung-Min.
Some of you reading this might be pulling a face right now. Hasn’t Sonny been out of form for weeks now? Yes he has. Sonny has looked exhausted and off his feed for a while, the combination of a very long league campaign, a major international tournament in the middle of the season, and playing out of position due to injuries and necessity.
But ignoring Son’s contributions to Tottenham Hotspur based on his recent form is to ignore just how important he has been to this Spurs team. Consider: 17 league goals is his joint-second highest goal tally since coming to Tottenham, behind his 23 goals in 2021-22. He also continued his dramatic over-performance of his xG, something that has been the hallmark of his playing career — 17 goals vs. his xG of 12. Only Brennan Johnson has as many assists this season as Sonny, and Johnson’s season can be accurately described as “inconsistent.”
In fact, if you track non-penalty goals plus expected assisted goals (npG+xAG), only Manchester City’s Phil Foden has been better in the Premier League this season — higher than Mo Salah, Erling Haaland, Ollie Watkins, and Cole Palmer.
That’s without factoring in the intangibles — doing all of this on a new-look team under a dramatically different manager, and after selling Son’s strike partner and all-time Tottenham Hotspur leading scorer Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in the summer. And Son turns 32 years old in July.
Oh sure, you can make a cogent argument for Romero, Van de Ven, Vicario, or even Porro as Tottenham’s Player of the Season. All of them have played well and had good years. You can even look at Sonny’s struggles of late playing centrally as a reason to consider other players. But you shouldn’t. Nobody has been more important to Spurs’ success this season. Exactly one player has both scored and assisted the most Tottenham Hotspur goals this season. Why shouldn’t he be Player of the Season?
Community Player of the Season: Micky van de Ven
Who am I to criticize the runaway popular vote winner by readers of this blog? I can’t, and I won’t (though I clearly disagree). Micky van de Ven has been a revelation this season playing a difficult left central defender role under Ange Postecoglou’s high pressure and high line tactics. He wasn’t many Spurs’ fans first choice for the role — that was Edmond Tapsoba, a player whom Spurs flirted with but ultimately abandoned in pursuit of Van de Ven from Wolfsburg.
But once established alongside Cuti Romero in Spurs’ back line, there was little doubting what he brought to the table — blazing fast speed, spatial awareness, smart tackling, and the occasional banger of a goal. That pace of his is his primary attribute and the main reason why he’s been so much of a success this season. Under Postecoglou, Tottenham plays a ridiculously high defensive line such that it’s a relatively straightforward process for opposition teams to get balls into space behind the defense. Slower defenders can’t keep up with speedy attackers when that happens, which leads to one-on-ones with the keeper, which leads to big chances, which leads to goals. Van de Ven’s recovery pace means there’s almost always one defender chasing down any attacker who happens to get behind the line. I can’t count how many times Micky has saved our asses in transition.
He’s also the safest passer on the team, with a team-high 93% pass completion rating. Sure, many of those are simple balls either to a central midfielder or inverted fullback playing out from the back, or a back pass to Guglielmo Vicario, but those tactics require someone comfortable with the ball at his feet, and Micky is definitely that.
In fact, the only real knock on Micky is the hamstring injury he suffered in November that kept him out of the team for two months, which ironically only emphasized his importance to the squad. Had he stayed healthy, it is very possible Tottenham might have qualified for Champions League football this season instead of Europa League.
Regardless, Micky van de Ven is already established himself in an injury-abbreviated season as one of the lynchpins of Ange Postecoglou’s tactics at Spurs, and an important player for hopefully years to come. Is that enough to name him Player of the Season? Y’all seem to think so, and fair enough.