Conte happy after Son reacts to being benched with hat-trick
Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte got the response he could only have dreamed of when Son Heung-min reacted to being made to start on the bench with a stunning hat-trick to seal a 6-2 win over Leicester City on Saturday.
After going eight games in all competitions without a goal, Conte left South Korean forward Son out of the starting lineup for Saturday’s Premier League clash.
Coming on around the hour mark to replace summer signing Richarlison, Son scored three times in 14 minutes as Tottenham moved joint top of the table.
Son was the joint-highest scorer in the Premier League last season with 23 goals but has lacked his usual sharpness this season and Conte stood by his decision to leave him out of the starters.
“I am really happy for Sonny today, you know what I think of the player,” Conte told Sky Sports.
“I said to him if you’re going to score three goals in 30 minutes maybe we can repeat this experiment, but I was joking. I’m lucky, I have a really good group of players that are really good people. We have to start thinking in a different way if we are going to make the next step.”
Explaining his decision in more detail, Conte added: “I was a player. Every player wants to play every game but you lose physical energy and mental energy.
“Sometimes you don’t understand this and think you can play but the performance goes down. Rotation is good for the team and for player welfare. If you give energy and you play in the way Son played, everyone is happy.”
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