A year of hard work… SON and Werner crucial difference “disappointingly wasteful”

You can’t have your cake and eat it too, but it was hard to hide the disappointment. Tottenham Hotspur’s highly anticipated signing, Timo Werner, had a disappointing debut for the club.

“Werner worked tirelessly but was frustratingly wasteful,” the British newspaper The Guardian wrote on Friday (ET).

Werner started against Manchester United in the 21st round of the 2023-2024 Premier League season at Old Trafford in Manchester, England. His one assist helped United to a 2-2 draw, but his overall performance left many scratching their heads. Son Heung-min’s absence was felt even more.

As The Guardian put it, “Five shots and one assist might seem like an incredible start. Only one of those shots threatened the goal, and when he came off the field in the 80th minute, replaced by Brian Hill, question marks abounded. Son Heung-min’s goal-decision difference is stark. Son’s shot-to-goal conversion rate is around 25%. It can be calculated that if Son took five shots, he would have scored at least one goal.

To some extent, this was a concern.

Tottenham signed Werner on loan from RB Leipzig on October 10.

Spurs were missing Son Heung-min at the Asian Cup. If South Korea reaches the final, Son will be out for up to six weeks. Without him, 안전놀이터 Tottenham would be forced to play with a front three of Heung-min, Brennan Johnson, and Dejan Klucepski.

That’s why Tottenham moved quickly when the winter transfer window opened. They snapped up Werner, whose playing style is similar to that of Son Heung-min.

However, Werner already had a history of failure in the Premier League. Werner exploded for 34 goals in the Bundesliga in a Leipzig jersey in the 2019-2020 season. Chelsea snatched him up in the summer of 2020. Werner has never scored more than 10 goals in the Premier League. He scored just six goals in 2020-2021 and four in 2021-22.

Chelsea sold Werner to Leipzig in the summer of 2022. Chelsea bought Werner for €53 million ($76.3 million) and sold him for €20 million ($28.7 million). Werner scored nine goals in the Bundesliga in the 2022-2023 season. This season, he has just two goals in eight games.

This is something that Tottenham were certainly aware of, as reported by the Mirror. Tottenham manager Enzi Postecoglou said, “If Werner was scoring goals consistently, we wouldn’t have been able to afford him. It’s simple. Werner saw an opportunity. He saw that there was an opportunity here. It’s simple,” he explained.

It’s too early to judge from one game. On the other hand, one game can tell you a lot about a player.

Tottenham were excited about Werner’s potential. Werner’s work rate is perfect for the pressing style of soccer that Postecoglou plays. Spurs will be without Son Heung-min for the foreseeable future, so Werner should be guaranteed playing time. Spurs will be hoping that his goal-scoring will improve in a stable situation.

He may already be a proven striker at Chelsea. The Guardian worried that Werner hadn’t changed. The Guardian asked: ‘How long do we have to wait for the promise? How many more seasons will Werner’s potential be realized? You start to wonder if he even had the potential in the first place,” implying that the signing of Werner could be a bust.