Spurs’ Kane Has Been in Tremendous Form this Season
Whenever Harry Kane scores for Spurs and England, there’s plenty to talk about. Following another impressive season there’s still much more to discuss for the potential Golden Boot winner.
Twenty-one goals this season for Harry Kane in the Premier League, his second consecutive season with 20-plus goals in the top-flight division, has seen the 22-year-old carry that fine goal scoring form with him to the international stage with another fine strike as England came back to beat Germany 3-2 in a friendly.
It goes without saying, that when Kane is in form, he’s always on the mark by scoring plenty of goals to the point that he almost looks unstoppable. Sure there are some games where he doesn’t score, but a minor drought quickly ends when the Tottenham and England striker, strikes once again in consecutive games.
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Take for example his recent goal with England. while it was just his fourth international goal in just nine appearances. If we look at how many goals the Tottenham forward has scored recently, he’s up to six goals in just four games: Arsenal (one), Aston Villa (two), Bournemouth (two) and Germany (one).
Now if we were to go back to his first goal scored this term against Manchester City, plus while on international duty with England during this ongoing 2015-16 season, the total will look something like this: 27 goals scored in 50 games in all competitions.
To get a better idea of where these goals were scored, here’s a quick breakdown.
Harry Kane’s goals scored during the 2015-16 season (all competitions):
- Premier League — 21 goals in 31 appearances
- Europa League — 2 goals in 7 appearances
- FA Cup — 1 goal in 4 appearances
- League Cup — 0 goals in 1 appearances
- International — 3 goals in 7 appearances
The numbers above showcase a truly unstoppable striker when he’s on his game and in form. And while much has been said about a possible slip-up during this season — which he had for a while — that’s no longer an issue now for Harry Kane.
It’s not that no one believed in Harry Kane and that he couldn’t continue to produce when called upon. But rather, it was people bracing for the worse possible outcome, that it may be a flash in the pan. In short, they were being realistic.
Because there was no way that managers wouldn’t keep an extra eye on Harry Kane from now on and let him roam around freely off the ball, let alone with it. Case in point, look back at the League Cup final against Chelsea at Wembley Stadium.
After José Mourinho witnessed first-hand what Harry Kane was capable of, he devoted three or four defenders to stop the striker from doing much of anything. It became the norm moving forward and it has continued this season.
The reason why Kane is still scoring for Spurs despite more defenses keeping an eye on him, is because of how well Mauricio Pochettino has effectively reworked his offensive game plan.
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Harry Kane will no doubt get the majority of the goals seeing as how he’s Spurs’ only out-and-out striker.
But the signing and emergence of Dele Alli, who has contributed with seven goals and nine assists (mostly to Kane) in 29 league appearances, adds an extra dimension into where Tottenham can attack a defense.
Adding in the likes of Christian Eriksen and a rejuvenated Érik Lamela and Mousa Dembélé, plus Son Heung-Min and Nacer Chadli means there are plenty of attacking players that teams must worry about along with Kane.
Quite literally, it’s a matter of picking your poison. Will you allow Harry Kane to score often? Or let Alli, Eriksen and Lamela pick you off? How about Son and Chadli?
Even Tom Carroll, Ryan Mason, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker have gotten on the scoresheet. And that’s because managers can only stop so many goal scorers from scoring, therefore certain players find themselves in perfect spots to score a goal.
Going back to Saturday’s game against Germany, Harry Kane’s confidence is at an all-time high that he feels he can score against anyone even if Roy Hodgson still has plans to bring back Wayne Rooney into the starting lineup once he’s healthy again.
“That is not my decision,” Kane said (quotes via the London Evening Standard).
“That is down to the boss. Wayne is a fantastic player, he is our skipper and Roy [Hodgoson] has made it clear he wants him involved.”
“All I can do is keep working hard and give the [England] manager a problem, but I feel like I can score against any team in the world. You have to believe in yourself as a striker, that if you get the opportunities you will put them away.”
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Putting away goals is something that Kane has been great at despite extra attention being given to him for nearly two seasons. And once the Euros begin this summer, he will be a marked man once again.
“Maybe I will be a marked man in the summer. Again, that is football.”
“If you want to be one of the top players in the world, you have to deal with that. I am happy for the challenge.”
“I want to keep working hard, to keep getting better and better and to have more nights like that on Saturday, scoring more goals for England because they are special. You dream about scoring against teams like Germany on the big stage.”