“The strongest connection in the history of the Premier League” is made like this

With a 4-0 victory over Leeds United, which had conceded 16 goals in the previous four rounds, Tottenham Hotspur’s last Premier League victory cannot be said to be very high, nor can it be inferred that the team has come out of the recent ups and downs. But victory is always something to celebrate, especially when it is accompanied by the birth of a new record-in the 85th minute of the game, Kane assisted Son Xingmin with a long pass and scored Tottenham’s 4th goal, which was the 37th goal between the “Sun Kai combination” The second time in the Premier League to complete the connecting goal, surpassing Drogba and Lampard’s record of 36 times. It is no exaggeration to say that Kane-Sun Xingmin is the “strongest and most tacit duo” in the history of the Premier League.

A super combination of mutual aid and mutual benefit

In fact, as early as a year ago, Kane and Sun Xingmin were already worthy of such a title. They refreshed the highest number of goals scored by two players in a single season in the Premier League, and assisted each other with 14 goals. The “combination” went down — in the 1994-95 season, Shearer, who played for Blackburn, and high center Sutton assisted each other 13 times. Now, the Tottenham duo have not only surpassed Drogba-Lampard in the total amount of data, but are also more harmonious in the degree of “mutual aid and mutual benefit”. At Chelsea, Drogba was the bridgehead for the striker, and Lampard was a good player in the attack. With 24 assists, the center is only half of the midfielder.

The data of Kane and Son Heung-min are almost half points. Since the 2016-17 season, the Korean has assisted Kane 19 times, and the long pass to Leeds is Kane’s 18th wedding dress for Son Heung-min. In the history of the Premier League, such a direct mutual assistance super duo is rare, such as Aguero-David Silva (29 consecutive goals), Sheringham-Anderton (27), and Fowler- McMaraman (24), etc., are mostly midfielders/wingers who do the ball for shooters. The only ones who are close to Sun Kai are Arsenal’s Henry and Pires. The two have 29 connections, Henry has 12 assists, and Pires has 17.

Back then, the two French gunmen were a perfect match at Arsenal. It was important that Henry had a large range of activities. He liked to take the ball from the left and dashed forward. At the same time, Pires, who was originally a left midfielder, often hit the penalty area. The reason why Kane and Sun Xingmin are a perfect match is that Kane’s versatility is also the key. Tottenham No. 10 can drop the ball and send a precise long pass from the back position to give full play to the advantages of the Korean fast horses – against Leeds United The record-breaking assists are a prime example.

In fact, before last season, the cooperation between Sun Kai and Sun Kai was mainly based on Sun Xingmin playing the ball for the center by breaking the ball, and Kane, who mainly played the role of the terminator, did not even give Sun Xingmin a league assist in the 2019-20 season. However, in the 2020-21 season, Kane has comprehensively improved his delivery function, helping the Koreans score 9 goals in one breath, most of which are assists through long passes after he retreats, especially to the left from the right in the middle. Most of the long pass.

Of course, no matter how accurate Kane’s long pass is, in the end, Sun Xingmin must complete the goal to turn it into an assist. In this regard, the improvement of South Korean forwards in recent years is obvious to all. After joining Tottenham, Son Heung-min scored in double figures in the Premier League every season, and last season he even reached a personal high of 17 goals in a single season. At that time, his expected number of goals was only 10.3, and the difference between actual goals and expected goals was 6.7, which was the highest in the Premier League. This shows that Son Heung-min’s ability to turn “opportunities that are not opportunities” into goals is the best in the Premier League.

One is a super center with the brain and footwork of a midfield commander, and the other is a fast horse with super impact and feeling in front of the goal. The combination of the two not only has the conventional winger feeding routine, but also can be perfectly reversed. Both of them are at their golden age, and such a combination is really hard to guard against.

However, although the record is beautiful, it should be seen that there are not many connections between Sun Kai and the two this season. Including a pass against Leeds United, there are only 3 times in total, which has not surpassed the lowest in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons (both 4 times). On the worst side, due to factors such as Kane’s previous intentions, the power of the Tottenham duo has dropped significantly, which is one of the important reasons for the team’s unsatisfactory record this season. But looking in a good direction, at least 2 of the 3 connections happened in the last half month (the last time was a 3-2 win over Manchester City on February 19, Sun Xingmin assisted Kane), and the tacit understanding between the two still exists. resuming trend.

After this big win, coach Conte did not continue his pessimistic remarks after losing to Burnley, he regarded this 4-0 as a new starting point: “From the team’s performance, I saw Their desire to win, the players are in fighting mode at every moment of the game, which I am happy to see. We should have the spirit of today in every game from the beginning to the end, my team is not soft Egg, we also need to make ourselves stronger!”