Tottenham’s Son Heung-min on ‘strange’ disallowed penalty: ‘The referee told me to change my style and practice’

The Spurs forward remains bemused by referee Paul Tierney’s decision to disallow his stuttering penalty-kick against Rochdale in the FA Cup

Son Heung-min's stuttering spot-kick failed to pay off (Getty)

Start. Stutter. Shoot.

It is a penalty taking technique that has previously served Son Heung-min so well, including during a friendly between Morocco and South Korea last October. Trailing 3-0 in the closing stages of the game, Son struck from the spot to end a long run of 369 days without an international goal. But against Rochdale at a frozen Wembley on Wednesday night, things did not go as smoothly.

With both Harry Kane and Dele Alli left on the bench for the FA Cup fifth-round replay, spot-kick responsibility fell to Son, who had never previously taken a penalty in Tottenham colours. And he wasn’t made to wait long for his chance, with the Video Assistant Referee ruling Rochdale defender Matt Done had fouled Kieran Trippier inside the box midway through the first-half.

Son placed the ball on the penalty spot, halted halfway through his run-up and confidently sent Josh Lillis the wrong way, rolling the ball into the right-hand corner of the goal. He began a nonchalant trot to the corner flag in celebration, only for referee Paul Tierney to immediately blow his whistle. Son turned around in confusion to be greeted by the sight of a yellow card.

He was still trying to wrap his head around the decision long after the game had finished, which Spurs eventually won 6-1.

“It is difficult to explain what happened because in the international break, I scored with the same run-up,” he said, refereeing to the goal against Morocco.

“But then this time, it was a foul. This is a strange thing for me. I scored like this, I try it again and then they say no.”

Son could not believe his spot-kick was disallowed (Getty)

Former Premier League referee Chris Foy was quick to defend Tierney’s decision on BT Sport. “It is what they call illegal feinting,” he explained. “He is quite rightly carded and the decision is right, albeit unpopular.”

But Son does not believe the situation is that simple. Although the Laws of the Game indicate that a player deemed to have feinted at the end of his run should be shown a yellow card for unsporting behaviour, stuttering during a run-up is allowed. And — unsurprisingly — Son is of the opinion that his was a stutter rather than a stop.

“This is my move,” he said of the technique, which is also regularly used by Cristiano Ronaldo. “I make my tempo slower during the run-up but I am still on the move, you know. So this, for me, is strange. The referee told me that I need to change my style and practice!”

Ronaldo is another who favours a stuttering approach (Getty)

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino certainly won't be taking Kane off penalties anytime soon, although he defended Son’s version of events. “When I watch on the TV, I think he does not completely stop, he moves but too slow,” he said in his post-match press conference. “He can take penalties in the future, because for me it was a goal and his shot was very good. But it is true with Harry on the pitch, he is going to struggle to take them.”

Fortunately for both Son and Spurs, a fine second-half performance saw off Rochdale and set up a quarter-final away to Swansea. Son chipped in with two fine goals even despite his disallowed penalty, while Fernando Llorente scored a 12-minute ‘perfect’ hat-trick, which rather flew under the radar amid so much controversy.

Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela also impressed alongside Son, in an encouraging sign for Pochettino. Approaching the business end of the season, Spurs are still in the FA Cup and Champions League while sat fourth in the table, with a number of players hitting form at exactly the right time.

Pochettino eventually got the result he wanted (Getty)

Competition for places is hotting up, which Son stressed is only a good thing.

“Competition makes us all better and better,” he said. “I just try to work hard, like today. When I play, I just try to score goals or assist someone - that's my job. I just try to show my good performance and we'll see what happens in the future.

On Llorente, he added: “I'm very happy. He's a very nice guy. I think it's his first hat trick for Tottenham and everyone is happy. It's not easy to score a hat trick and for him it's good to get his confidence back and he can score a lot more goals for us hopefully.”

Son and Llorente were the stars (Getty)

Son, who had made over 100 appearances for Tottenham since signing from Bayer Leverkusen three years ago, is one of a large group of outstandingly talented players at the club never to have won a club trophy. But the FA Cup presents Pochettino’s team with a fine opportunity to break that duck, and Son added that Tottenham’s near miss in the competition last season was spurring them on.

“We went to the semi-final last season against Chelsea here and we lost. We were very close to the final and we still remember this,” he said.

“We're not close to the semifinal or the final now but we are in a good way and we can go with confidence to Swansea, where we will be looking to win. We don't go to Swansea thinking, 'Ok we draw and then we replay again.’ No-one is thinking like this. We're looking forward to going there, winning and going the the semifinal. We'll see what happens.”