We can choose to be positive or negative – Heung-Min Son

Ahead of our return to Europa League action this evening, Heung-Min Son insists the narrative of the season rests in the minds of players and fans alike – and he’s urging only positive thoughts as we continue to compete on three fronts.

Five defeats in our last six games have cast a feeling of frustration over what had previously been seen as a positive season where, until last week’s all-action FA Cup defeat to Everton, we’d been fighting in all four competitions.

But with tonight’s match against Austrian side Wolfsberger AC in Hungary offering a chance to put our best foot forward and work towards winning a European trophy and a Champions League qualification spot, Sonny has made his choice clear – he wants to remain upbeat and optimistic.

“It’s all about thinking,” said the attacker. “If you’re thinking positive, it’s always positive, if you think negative, it’s negative. Obviously we’ve dropped some points in the league and we are out of the FA Cup – it’s sad and if you’re thinking about it like this, it’s negative, but we’re in the Europa League, we’re in the final of the Carabao Cup and we have to think about it positively.

“The past is already past and we just want to focus on the coming fixtures. Now is another important game as the Europa League starts again so we are looking forward, we are focussed on this big game, a big competition, we go there with good energy, with positive energy and (look to) get the win.”

Asked in the official pre-match press conference ahead of the Wolfsberger tie what had gone wrong for us of late, Sonny replied: “It’s obviously a bit of the players’ responsibility because we’ve dropped some points because of our mistakes and the players know, but we’ve had a conversation, we want more, we want to work hard because we know that as players, as human beings, we can do better to be honest.

“It’s very sad that, especially in the league, we’ve dropped some points when we had the opportunity to win these games but football is not that easy to win games like that, we have to be focussed until the final whistle. It’s hard. Football is all about results, when you don’t win obviously the mood is a bit down, it’s hard to say, but the lads want to fight until the end because the season changes so quick – after one team was on top of the table, two weeks after that another team is on top of the table so the league is changing quite quick. But I said before, what’s already past it’s past, we just focus on the fixtures and the coming big games, we have to be focussed and be positive. This is what we should do and we will do it.”

Kick-off this evening is at 5.55pm UK time.