How Liverpool could line up with Son

FT Desk

• 27 Oct 2022 11:01 BST
• 3 min read

Liverpool have been linked with a sensational swoop for Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-Min. How would the Reds line up with the South Korean in their ranks?

Son won the Premier League Golden Boot last season, sharing the title with would-be Liverpool teammate Mo Salah after plundering 23 goals for Spurs.

Throw in his nine assists and Son has had 212 goal involvements in 342 games in all competitions for Tottenham since his €30 million arrival from Bayer Leverkusen in August 2015.

But for all that attacking prowess, a Champions League runners-up medal is the closest he has come to silverware at White Hart Lane, and his father suggested at the start of the season it was time to move on.

"He must be able to play a solid role in one of the world's top clubs," Son Woong-jung told Chinese TV network CGTN. "That's when he'll become a world class player."

How would Liverpool line up with Son?

Son is currently rated at €51m by Football Transfers' in-house algorithm, and Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is notorious for driving a hard bargain, but if Liverpool were to cough up for Son, who would surely slot straight into the team.

Son does his best work from the left flank, from where he can use his pace and trickery to cut inside and let fly on his stronger right foot. That could hardly be more compatible with Jurgen Klopp's preferred 4-3-3 system.

The German has recently experimented with a 4-4-2, but the absence of Sadio Mane - who joined Bayern Munich for €41m in the summer - allied to a laundry list if injury absentees, are a large part of the reason why.

Son could be expected to line up on the left of a front three, opposite Salah, with Luis Diaz having to make way. If he joins next summer, they will likely have Darwin Nunez between them with Bobby Firmino out of contract and set to leave.

Further back, Harvey Elliott has shot to prominence this season with age and injury getting the better of James Milner and Jordan Henderson, while Ibrahima Konate would be favourite to partner Virgil van Dijk at centre-back once he recovers from his muscular injury.