Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has defended his decision to substitute Son Heung-min, who was on a hat-trick at the time, in the 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
The South Korea international continued his recent purple patch in front of goal by netting both strikes in the victory, which moves Spurs further into the top-four mix.
With a glamour tie against Juventus in midweek to play, it was inevitable that Pochettino would remove some of his star players after Tottenham were in the ascendancy.
However, there were a few raised eyebrows as Son was the first man to make way, being replaced by Erik Lamela in the second half of the Spurs win at Wembley.
Pochettino has stated that he wanted to rest the versatile Tottenham attacker and that the former Bayer Leverkusen man has played a lot of football of late.
“Ok I think in the last few games he played a lot,” Football London quote the Spurs boss as saying.
“He played one hour and scored twice against Rochdale. It was a very cold day. Today, another 70 minutes and of course he’s not a machine. He’s needs to rest, it’s a lot of games.”
With Tottenham needing to go for the jugular against Juventus after a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the Champions League knockout tie, Son must surely be one of the first names on the teamsheet.
The South Korean has been in and out of the team in recent weeks, with the return to fitness of Lamela and the signing of Lucas Moura adding options in the final third for Spurs.
Despite this, Son has shown his ability in the biggest games this season and Tottenham boss Pochettino should select him in the starting XI on Wednesday against Juventus.