Son Heung-Min’s injury could crush Tottenham’s entire season

Tottenham’s top four chances may have shattered with the break in Son Heung-Min’s arm. Jose Mourinho now faces an impossible challenge at Spurs.

Harry Kane‘s injury placed a ton of pressure on Son Heung-Min to shoulder the goal scoring burden at Tottenham. In a cruel twist of irony, the pressure has now figuratively resulted in an ugly break in the Korean’s arm. The result leaves Jose Mourinho and Spurs woefully short of attacking options.

Mourinho isn’t hiding his disappointment regarding Son’s injury. He clearly isn’t optimistic about Son’s chances of playing again this season. The Portuguese gaffer’s challenge now becomes cobbling together an attack capable of troubling opposing defenses until Kane’s return.

Unfortunately, Kane won’t return until the very end of the season, if at all. That places immense pressure onto attacking midfielders like Dele Alli, Erik Lamela, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura to up their output in the meantime.

Lucas, in particular, will come under more scrutiny than he has during his Spurs career. His goalless streak is starting to concern even the most optimistic Tottenham fans. If he can’t find a way to score a goal or two soon, Mourinho may be forced to try someone else up top.

Perhaps that man would be Dele Alli. He isn’t a great hold up player, but he does provide a more physical presence than any of Mourinho’s other options. At the very least, Dele will be required to be more clinical in front of goal. His inaccuracy in the Aston Villa match almost cost Spurs dearly on Sunday.

Lamela is likely the player who will take Son’s place in the starting XI this week. He missed the Villa match due to injury, but was back in training for Tottenham on Tuesday. The Argentine will need to stay healthy for a lengthy run of matches if he wants to help fill the void left by Son and Kane. He has the talent to make something happen in the final third, but his inability to stay on the pitch has stalled his Spurs career.

The last player available to Mourinho in this endeavor might be the one with the most upside. Bergwijn may have just arrived at Tottenham, but he’s already scored a world-class strike against Manchester City on his debut. More importantly, he backed it up with another solid match at Villa on Sunday. Look for him to be even more aggressive without Son on the pitch.

For Mourinho, it’s still a massively bitter pill to swallow. Before Son’s injury it looked as if he had Tottenham on the way to a secure top four finish. Now he must go back to the drawing board once again to cobble together a side capable of grinding out results in close matches. Losing Son might be more than he, and Tottenham, can overcome.