Marc Dos Santos didn't wait for Son Heung-min to run himself into the ground. The LAFC head coach went to his star first — and told him straight: you're not playing every minute of every game this August.
"I brought it up to him because the players always tell you that they are good, they are ready and they could play every game," Dos Santos said Wednesday. "But the graphic you see in a condensed period... you see players peaking and then after an X amount of always playing, you see their graphic coming down."
Eight matches in August. MLS regular season plus Leagues Cup. That's the wall LAFC is running toward, and Dos Santos is clearly thinking beyond each individual game — which, frankly, not every coach is smart enough to do in the middle of a season.
Son finally firing at the right time
The timing is interesting. Son only just scored his first MLS goal of the season last Friday against LA Galaxy, ending a 13-game league drought. His previous two goals this year came in the Concacaf Champions Cup — a tournament that's now over. Now that he's clicking in the league, Dos Santos has to thread the needle between protecting him and keeping that momentum alive.
Son turns out to have a specific fondness for Wednesday's opponents, Real Salt Lake. He notched his first MLS hat trick against them on September 17 last year, then added a goal and two assists four days later in the very next meeting. If Dos Santos is already planning which minute to pull him against RSL, he might want to at least let Son get into his groove first.
At 34, Son isn't a player who collapses under pressure — his career track record argues otherwise. But eight games in a month is a different kind of test, and the smart money on LAFC's Leagues Cup run depends on whether their most dangerous player arrives at the knockout rounds with something left in the tank.
"Sonny understands, of course," Dos Santos said. That's the whole plan, right there.
