We have already established that the very first task that the new coach, and hopefully the new director of football, will have for Spurs is convincing Harry Kane to stay. If the rumors are true and Antonio Conte is indeed going to be the next manager of Tottenham Hotspur, he should have a very convincing argument for Harry Kane. Here are three reasons why Antonio Conte is an excellent match for Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur.
Conte a strikers dream
Antonio Conte is known in some circles as a pragmatic defensive-minded coach. The fact that he prefers a back three, which changes to a back five when in deep can give that impression to the casual observer. If we add in the fact that Conte’s two most recent teams at Inter conceived a combined .91 goals per match does suggest that Conte is indeed a defensive-minded coach.
The line-up and defensive success are undeniable, as is the fact that he is a dream for strikers. Antonio Conte finds a way to get the best out of the tools he is given when it comes to strikers.
At Chelsea, he got 20 goals from poacher Diego Costa and 19 from crafty Eden Hazard in their title-winning season of 2016/17. However, Hazard and Costa are far from the pair he had at inter in Lautaro Martinez and Romelu Lukaku.
Martinez is more like your Steven Bergwijn or Son Heung-Min playing in the second striker role. His job is to dribble, get fouled, be a long ball threat and score some goals. Over the last two seasons, Lautaro Martinez has scored 40 goals in all competitions for Inter.
Then playing in what undoubtedly would be the Harry Kane role, Conte had Romelu Lukaku at Inter. Lukaku provides the same kind of target presence that Harry Kane does, where he can hold up the ball and play with his back to goal. Additionally, Lukaku did a lot of dropping deep to play the ball into the corners for the wings or to Martinez on the through ball.
Undoubtedly Conte must be giddy thinking about having Harry Kane play the same role as Lukaku did for him. Over the last two seasons, the big Belgian has netted 64 goals in all competitions. That is 104 goals in the last two seasons in all competitions, just from the two strikers on Conte’s Inter. To say Conte is a dream for a striker is maybe an understatement.
So what exactly will Conte do that will help Kane thrive? Here are three specific reasons Harry Kane should be happy about the arrival of Antonio Conte.
Why Kane and Tottenham should be happy with Conte
Antonio Conte brings stability to the football club that was lacking during the last couple of seasons. For Conte, it is about the team and the results, not the players, not the media, about the success or lack thereof on the field. That promise of success as much as anything else should be reasons enough for Harry Kane to want to stay but here are three specific reasons Kane should be happy about Conte taking charge.
Conte’s teams like to shoot
One of the biggest issues for Tottenham last season was how they were often outshot by the opposition. Despite often winning the battle for possession, Spurs would regularly get outshot by their opponent. This is unlikely to happen with Antonio Conte in charge. Conte wants his teams attacking and wants them taking chances, especially his strikers.
Over two seasons at Inter, his teams averaged 15.14 shots per contest. Conversely, the Lilywhites averaged only 11.63 shots per match. Those four extra shots add up over time and equate to more than 150 more shots over a 38 game season.
And while we know Harry Kane is going to get his shots, those rebound goals were pretty few this past season and surely would go up if everyone was shooting more.
More shots equals more goals
Most importantly the additional shooting leads to more opportunities to score. Inter had an expected Goals or xG of 1.97 compared to Tottenham’s 1.44. That is more than half a goal a match, so taking more shots does matter because like Tottenham this season, Conte’s teams tend to be very efficient.
While the xG for Inter this season was 1.97 per 90, they scored 2.21 goals per 90, outpacing their xG. With 82 goals per season for over the last two seasons, Conte’s teams like to shoot and they are good at it and that should make Harry Kane happy.
Kane should see a lot more service
Play on the wings is a hallmark of an Antonio Conte team and this is not just spraying the ball wide to spread the field. Rather, Antonio Conte has his teams use the wings to stretch the defense vertically and provide crosses into the box, something Tottenham desperately needs.
Conte’s Inter teams have averaged about five more crosses per match compared to Tottenham this past season. At less than 9 crosses per match, the Spurs simply were not providing very much service. In fact, Lukaku had so much service this past season his xG was actually higher than Harry Kane’s.
The idea that Harry Kane can actually play some striker and be a target in the box for crosses has to sound good to the English captain. Harry Kane had a lot of goals this past season but there was not a lot that one could call easy. Getting Harry Kane more crosses into the box to try and get on the end of is just a good idea.
Just like it is a good idea to have someone beyond Kane to target and giving Kane someone to play off of. This is exactly what Conte does with his two-striker approach.
Finally a second striker at Spurs
For as long as we can remember finding a backup for Harry Kane has been a real challenge. While Carlos Vinicius did okay this past season, it did not result in more time with two strikers on the pitch.
Well just as Antonio Conte likes to use a three-back system, he also likes to play with two strikers. Whether Costa and Hazard, or Hazard and Morata, or Lukaku and Martinez, the strikers are never alone.
This is important as it takes the pressure off of Harry Kane and allows the team to leverage Kane’s knack for dropping deep to receive the ball. Too often this past season Kane would drop deep and there was no one going beyond him pushing and pressuring the center-backs. In the Conte system, one striker plays off the other.
We saw this past season the connection between Kane and Son, with the South Korean push against the defense up top instead of pinching in from the wing, it should make for even more opportunities for Kane.
The space vacated on the wing by Son moving up top opens up the lane for Sergio Reguilon or whoever is at left wing-back. The point is unlike this season where Kane had to force things, he should have options when he drops just as he should see more of the ball when he gets into the box.
Ultimately the decision is going to be Kane and maybe he has already decided to stay or maybe he has already decided to go, or maybe he is as of yet undecided. Whatever Kane’s current thought, part of thinking has to be that Conte is a dream coach for strikers and he can do big things with him.