Latest
Latest
11h agoWe all laughed at Richarlison - now it doesn't feel funny at all
Latest
12h agoNewcastle hopeful new betting charges won't extend Sandro Tonali ban
Latest
12h agoNewcastle identify two big-name candidates to replace Dan Ashworth

Harry Kane: The damning numbers on slow Tottenham start after England heartache and collapsed Man City move

Kane is yet to get off the mark in the Premier League and the stats suggest an unrealistic workload and a summer of disappointment have taken their toll

The sanctity of the England camp once felt impenetrable for Harry Kane. No matter what was going on at Tottenham, national duty was always an escape for the Three Lions skipper.

After taking him off after 76 uninspiring minutes against Hungary, Gareth Southgate was conscious that had changed – though he was evidently keen not to feed the wolves. “In the end we need to refresh that and get fresh legs into the game,” he said. “With any of the forward players there’s always a story when we take them off.

“They’re big players. We have to have a team able to do that. We felt it was the right thing at the time.”

As Kane returns to Tottenham this weekend against a very different Newcastle United to the club that entered the international break a fortnight ago, he is still searching for his first league goal of the season.

Read More - Featured Image

Slow starts are not exactly alien to the Spurs striker. Until the 2018-19 season, when he banished the curse against Fulham on the second weekend of the campaign, he had never scored a Premier League goal in August – a run which had stretched to 14 games and 994 minutes. Of his 46 shots, not one had gone in.

Kane’s goals at this stage of the season. Data via WhoScored (Chart: DataWrapper)

Then again, it was hardly surprising that he failed to hit the ground running this time around, when he belatedly returned to training after England’s run to the Euro 2020 final. Even if the psychological impact of his botched attempt to force a move to Manchester City is discounted, Kane did not return to full group training until 17 August; Nuno Espirito Santo took the first pre-season session on 5 July, 43 days earlier.

Jamie Carragher recently admitted he was “shot at the start of the season” after a similarly hectic period for Liverpool in 2006. “I didn’t start the season well and I was getting a bit of criticism – and rightly so,” Carragher told Gary Neville on The Overlap. The former England centre-back had played a long season due to European qualification and it culminated in a major tournament. The same is true for Kane now.

Then there are the injuries: 15 in under eight years, some more severe than others. Since the 2016-17 season, he has missed 28 matches with ankle problems and since 2013-14, he has spent close to a year – 341 days – on the sidelines overall. For much of that period, he has been Tottenham’s only senior striker, or at the least the only one regularly relied upon with the likes of Carlos Vinicius, Vincent Janssen and Fernando Llorente all playing bit-part roles.

Read More - Featured Image

In light of that prolonged workload, Kane’s numbers are unsurprising. He is averaging the same number of shots per game as Son Heung-min, though fewer of them are coming from within the penalty area. While he has more goals than the South Korean in all competitions for Spurs, one was a strike against Wolves in the League Cup; the other five were in the much-derided Conference League, including a 19-minute hat-trick against Mura.

Last season, as the 28-year-old won both the Premier League Golden Boot and Playmaker Award, the latter was an indication of his all-round contribution. So far in the 2021-22 campaign, however, it is not just goals he has lacked, completing an average of less than one key pass per game and averaging almost two unsuccessful touches – and one dispossession – per 90 minutes.

It has made for a disappointing end to a summer which promised so much. Greatness was within his grasp twice. Once, English immortality slipped from in front of his eyes in the familiarly painful outcome of penalties. The despondency of not joining the champions was longer drawn out as City stalled, before ultimately refusing to meet Daniel Levy’s asking price.

Dimitar Berbatov, who left Spurs for Manchester United in 2008, remembers how he felt when Robbie Keane joined Liverpool weeks before him, leading him to suspect he would not be allowed to quit White Hart Lane.

Read More - Featured Image

“I was in the same situation, just the outcome was different,” Berbatov told i. “One striker left the team, now there’s not a chance in the world that they’re going to let me go. I started thinking all these negative thoughts in my head: I’m going to stay, how are people going to take me back now that we’ve gone so far?

“I knew this was my chance to reach my personal top and I took it. Whatever the truth is about the transfer not happening, only Harry Kane knows, his agent, the chairman of Spurs and the other club.

Kane’s goal tallies for Spurs in the top flight (Photo: DataWrapper)

“In this situation, the only person who’s going to be suffering through the process is the player. He’s between the two clubs, the fans will be turning against you as they did, and you will be left wondering what is the right decision.”

In the meantime, there are few players inside the Spurs dressing room anywhere close to Kane’s level of seniority who might interject to pick their teammate back up, except perhaps the captain, Hugo Lloris.

“The important thing is he’s here and now he needs to be mentally strong,” Berbatov added. “Try to forget what was happening, how or if the transfer failed, and concentrate on what he can do – score goals and make assists.”

Most Read By Subscribers