Liverpool will have plenty of reasons to be wary of Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, but midweek brought a reminder that the north London side have lost their biggest threat.
Harry Kane’s penalty in Bayern Munich’s 2-2 Champions League semi-final first leg draw at home to Real Madrid was the England captain’s 43rd goal in two games since his move to Germany last summer.
Liverpool would have been glad to be without Kane, who scored nine goals in 16 games against Tottenham and, despite winning just one of those games, was always a dangerous man when the two teams met.
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But he wasn’t the only one, and the Reds could be equally worried about Kane’s old partner in crime, the ever-impressive Heung-Min Son.
Son may be regarded as one of the best players in the Premier League, but Liverpool and their departed Jurgen Klopp still have reason to be sick of seeing the South Korean striker. After all, he has scored five goals in his last six Premier League games against the Reds, and six in 14 appearances in total for Spurs, while he scored five goals in five starts against Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund.
However, while Son remained unbeaten when starting against the German boss in the Bundesliga during his time at Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen, it is a different story when it comes to his encounters with the Reds.
Having faced Liverpool on 16 occasions, Tottenham’s infamous 4-1 win at Wembley in October 2017, in which he scored, and their controversial 2-1 home victory in September, in which he scored again, are the only occasions on which Son has ended up on the winning side against the Reds. And, of course, such a run includes Spurs’ defeat in the 2019 Champions League final.
Yet a record of 11 goals in 17 starts in all competitions against Klopp’s teams ensures Son is a dangerous man who could deal a serious blow to their hopes of returning to winning ways if he maintains such a high level of goalscoring at Anfield on Sunday. And Klopp knows he is almost impossible to stop.
“I’ll be ready to face the best possible Tottenham,” the Liverpool manager told reporters ahead of facing Tottenham last season. “They were, for some years, by far the best counter-attacking team in Europe.”
“There were times when you lost the ball, they just had to find Harry Kane and the next moment Son was in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper. I had no idea how to defend that properly, the best way to not lose the ball.”
So is it any wonder Klopp wishes he had signed Son earlier in his career?
“One of the biggest mistakes of my life was not signing Son Heung-min,” he lamented to Korean outlet KBS News in November 2021. “An exceptional player. He is fantastic, an example of Korean football and one of the best strikers in the world.”
Klopp failed to sign Son for Dortmund in 2013, with the player opting to join Leverkusen from Hamburg in a €10m deal.
“I wanted to stay in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen and Dortmund wanted me,” Son later recalled when explaining his decision to snub Klopp. “Both teams play in the Champions League, but I thought Dortmund would use rotation more than Leverkusen.
“That’s why I chose Leverkusen instead of Dortmund. At my age, it’s very important to play regularly.”
Two years later, having scored 29 goals in two seasons with Leverkusen, he would join Spurs for £22m in the same summer that Klopp left the Bundesliga. Now a Premier League legend at Tottenham, he has 161 goals in 403 appearances over nine seasons. But, crucially, he is trophyless.
Given Klopp’s admiration for Son, Liverpool have been sporadically linked with his services over the years. However, now that he is 31 and the manager is leaving in the summer, that ship appears to have sailed long ago.
But while Klopp might consider not signing Son one of his “biggest mistakes”, the Reds will not regret it. After all, Son is the same age as their famous (now dismantled) attacking triumvirate of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.
Firmino would make his own switch from the Bundesliga to the Premier League the same summer as Son, signing for Liverpool for £29m from Hoffenheim. After a slow start, partly due to injury, once Klopp took over as manager in October 2015 and inherited the Brazilian, Firmino was revitalised and became a legend at the club.
As for Mane, he was signed by Southampton for £34m in the summer of 2016. Klopp had previously tried to sign the Senegalese for Dortmund, as he had with Son, but decided against it. Klopp would later admit that he could have kicked himself for that decision, and he made sure to right the wrong at Anfield, righting a wrong he couldn’t when it came to Son, once he was available.
Mane scored 120 goals and provided 38 assists in 269 appearances for Liverpool before leaving for Bayern Munich for £35m. Salah, meanwhile, joined AS Roma for £43.9m in the summer of 2017. He now has 210 goals in 346 appearances and is already regarded as one of the club’s greatest ever players.
Between the three of them, they would help transform the Reds’ fortunes under Klopp. While Firmino and Mane would help Liverpool return to the Champions League, the addition of Salah contributed to their transformation into one of the strongest teams in Europe.
All three would go on to win every major honour on offer under Klopp, with the Reds crowned champions of England, Europe and the world.
Admittedly, if you are greedy, you could be forgiven for wondering what more Liverpool could have won had they had Son’s talent to complement their then-unbeatable forward line. After all, he is certainly a player who suits Klopp’s demands.
However, beyond a few admiring glances, the Kopites never had to wonder what might have become of the South Korean captain. They are more than happy with the hand Liverpool were dealt.
Only he can say whether Son has any regrets, given his lack of silverware compared to his Reds counterparts. It is worth noting, however, that even if he had not turned down offers from Klopp and Dortmund in 2013, that does not mean he would have followed the manager to Anfield. Equally, if he had not left Leverkusen when he did, it is impossible to know whether Klopp would have rekindled interest in Son’s services following his own arrival at Anfield.
Son may have been a huge mistake for Klopp, but the Reds have no regrets. He could have been part of this Anfield story, but instead he is just an admiring enemy, watching from afar as Liverpool won everything there is to win, even with Europe’s biggest prize at their expense.
A version of this article was first published in April 2023.
