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After his torment at Everton, Kieran Trippier could have done without Son Heung-min turning up on Tottenham‘s left wing and twisting him inside out.
Trippier has been exceptional since joining Newcastle. Stress-tested at the top of Spain’s LaLiga, he returned to English football with the look of the complete full back.
Mature and fluent in the dark arts of defending, as taught by Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid while still in possession of the consistently brilliant delivery from wide areas and set pieces that made his name.
As a senior pro, dressing room leader and often captain, Trippier has been at the vanguard of the transformation under Eddie Howe.
He is integral to England, too, with his experience and versatility to operate at full back on either side.
Newcastle defender Kieran Trippier was exposed and undone by Tottenham’s Son Heung-min
This, however, has been a few days he will want to forget. Two uncharacteristic mistakes on the ball at Goodison Park both led to late goals in a 3-0 defeat.
Back at Spurs, where he spent four years before leaving for Madrid in 2019, he was exposed and undone by Son, deployed wide on the left in a tactical tweak by Ange Postecoglou, searching to end a run of one point from five games.
Son has been prolific at centre forward but the decision to move him wide and allow Richarlison to operate in his favourite position paid instant dividends.
The Brazilian worked hard through the centre, dragging Newcastle’s centre-halves out of position as Son combined to good effect with Destiny Udogie in the spaces wide on the left.
Son was exhilarating in the first half and twice able to isolate Trippier and beat him on the outside with a change of pace.
Spurs converted the low crosses and took command of the game.
In fairness, there are no shortage of mitigating circumstances. Newcastle must be on their knees.
With a crippling injury crisis, Howe selected the same 10 outfield players for the fifth game in 15 days and it started to show against a team as light on workload as Tottenham.
Perhaps Newcastle’s desperate defensive rear-guard in the Champions League to take a point and nearly three from Paris Saint-Germain on a night when Trippier had Kylian Mbappe to look after has drained more from the tank than they thought at the time.
They squeezed past Manchester United next time out and collapsed late in the game at Everton on Wednesday.
It is mental fatigue as much as physical, and the freshness of mind to make the right decisions in a split second.
Son was a persistent thorn in Newcastle’s side and was instrumental in the first two goals
Joelinton scored a consolation goal in stoppage time but it was a miserable day for the visitors
Perhaps that was the week when all these factors caught up and overwhelmed Newcastle.
Trippier would have been relieved to see Son revert to a central role when Richarlison came off in 73rd minute and Dejan Kulusevski moved out wide.
At least Trippier was able to catch Kulusevski and give him a kick him to ease his frustration but a yellow card rules him out of the next Premier League fixture against Fulham.
‘We’re going to miss his,’ said Howe. ‘Kieran is a standard for us. He’s an outstanding technician and when he’s part of our biggest attacking threat it’s difficult.’
