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Tottenham’s Kane is Premier League’s Top Ranked Forward

By Alexander Balano

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 02: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on May 02, 2016 in London, England.jd (Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 02: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on May 02, 2016 in London, England.jd (Photo by Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images) /
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Tottenham Hotspur striker, Harry Kane, has been ranked as the top forward during the 2015-16 Premier League season, according to the Premiership’s official website.

Winning the Golden Boot award is proof enough that Tottenham’s Harry Kane was the best forward from this past season in the Premier League. But all that shows is how he was the leading goalscorer only. If we were to breakdown other statistics we could see how Kane stacks up with the other top strikers in the league.

Related Story: Tottenham End of Season Review: Harry Kane

According to the Premier League’s official site the reason that Harry Kane stands head and shoulders above the other top strikers is down to other key statistics, that while he didn’t exactly come out on top in some of them, he at least made the list and did quite well. Or at least that’s how the Premiership’s site made it out to be despite some baffling categories.

To begin, Kane attempted the most shots throughout the 38-game season with a ridiculous number of 158. No other striker got close enough with Sergio Agüero well behind at 119 shot attempts. Sitting in third was Romelu Lukaku who had 118, Jamie Vardy (115) is fourth and Odion Ighalo (109) rounds out the top five.

Although shot attempts don’t really mean much — seeing as how all you have to do is shoot, whether it’s on target or not — it does however paint a picture that Harry Kane will always challenge an opposing goalkeeper while also trying to help his team score as soon as possible.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 20: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates as he scores their first goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and A.F.C. Bournemouth at White Hart Lane on March 20, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 20: Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates as he scores their first goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and A.F.C. Bournemouth at White Hart Lane on March 20, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) /

Up next, an important statistic to determine how Kane ranks as the Premier League’s top forward (based on their own personal review in the article linked above), is shooting accuracy.

The 22-year-old Spurs striker didn’t finish first — and that’s because of his 158 shot attempts — but he managed to place second with a 60.5 percent clip. Which is about six percent (5.6 percent to be exact) behind Jermain Defoe who had a 66.1 percent shot accuracy, but maybe not as many attempts as the top five forwards had.

Moving along, is conversation rate, which basically shows how precise a striker is when it comes to scoring a goal. Although Marcus Rashford tops the list with a 55.6 percent conversation rate, he didn’t play an entire season.

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Even if the Premier League was only looking at a minimum of five starts, excluding penalties, this statistic didn’t have any of the top strikers who were battling it out for the Golden Boot award.

As the top five ended up being Marcus Rashford, Callum Wilson, Kelechi Iheanacho, Benik Afobe and Divock Origi — all of which made more than five starts, yes, but they weren’t full-on starters for their respective teams due to injury (Wilson) or they were just depth options getting some chances (Rashford, Iheanacho, Afobe and Origi).

This next statistic, goals from outside the box, could be seen as another useless statistic as teams would rather have their players, strikers no doubt, attempt a shot inside 18-yards or even closer.

While Sergio Agüero top this list with five goals from outside the penalty box and Harry Kane managed just two, it’s only impressive to see when the ball goes in. Otherwise why would you want forwards to shoot long distance consistently?

Wrapping things up is shots that hit either the posts or the crossbar. This is apparently a stat for some reason. It could best described as “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been goals but weren’t”.

So where did Harry Kane rank in this statistic? He was tied for first along with Romelu Lukaku with seven shots that hit the woodwork and didn’t go in for a goal. That means had Kane not hit the post or crossbar, he could have scored 32 goals in the Premier League instead of 25. But that’s just being picky.

Next: Kyle Walker Reflects on His Best Season with Tottenham

At the very least though, the England international led the Premiership with a high of six games in which he scored a brace. This right here, scoring multiple goals (brace and/or hat-trick, shot accuracy and conversation rate are more important than how many attempts a striker had. Or how many times they hit the woodwork.

Based on the Premier League’s assessment of the forward position, it’s hard to figure out how exactly Harry Kane became the league’s top ranked forward based on their own research. But nonetheless, this is just another accomplishment for Tottenham and Kane himself, to know that they have a proven goalscorer on the squad.

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