Breaking Down Harry Kane's Performance for Tottenham vs. Stoke
Harry Kane's afternoon in Tottenham Hotspur's 3-0 loss at Stoke City was typified by a moment in the 92nd minute.
The game all but over and the ball 30-plus yards away from goal, he was competing as if it was still all to play for. Sliding in on Steven Nzonzi from behind, Kane cleanly took the ball but was penalised by referee Mark Clattenburg after the midfield fell theatrically.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
A valiant but fruitless effort, that was Kane's lot just about all day. With just one goal in six matches since receiving an England call-up, the climax to 2014-15 is proving a frustrating one for the recently voted PFA Young Player of the Year.
Adding to his 30-goal haul for Tottenham this season was going to be tough with just one shot at the Britannia Stadium (confirmed by Squawka).
That 65th-minute long-range attempt was deflected wide for a corner-kick. Spurs were down 2-0 by then, and as had been the case all game, they found it tougher to get closer to goal than they even had against Manchester City in their previous fixture. As tallied by BBC Sport, they got off 21 shots versus the recently deposed champions and only nine against Mark Hughes' side.
Kane was forewarned of the suffocating work he and his team-mates would be be in store for in his own early exchanges with the Potters defence.
Bringing down a forward pass just beyond the centre circle, the striker was immediately put under pressure by Ryan Shawcross. Kane held off his challenge and maintained possession, but only after being forced back into his own half by the Stoke captain.
A few minutes later and closer to the opposition goal, he was not even allowed time to take a pass from Christian Eriksen. The playmaker and the forward were able to connect shortly afterwards, only for Kane to be promptly halted by a pair of red-and-white-striped shirts.
No matter how, Stoke were going to stop the lone front-man. It showed when they made things difficult even when not confronting him directly. Several times in the opening half hour he was able to find space on the flanks, but the few Spurs crossing options in the box were well marked.
The deliveries lacked quality (notably one poor low cross straight into Jack Butland's arms), but he was not alone there. The majority of Spurs' first-half work going forward was sluggish and unimaginative. Moments when Eriksen, Erik Lamela and others looked like creating something quickly succumbed to well-judged interventions from Stoke's defensive players.
Added to his largely underwhelming post-international-break run (save for his goalscoring performance in the 3-1 win over Newcastle United), Kane's opening 45 minutes did not dispel the emerging notion that his excellent season had finally run out of steam.
Still, the player who emerged from the interval did not look like a man who felt like the season and this match was over. Unable to hurt Stoke with the scant service coming his way, Kane used the forward presence of 61st-minute substitute Roberto Soldado to try to instigate something himself elsewhere.
He was back near the halfway line to make one sliding tackle which led to an Eriksen cross for Eric Dier. When Lamela was unable to pass to him a little later on he went in hunt of the ball himself. Then, moving into the left-hand channel, a great one-two with Eriksen required Glenn Whelan making a timely block.
The majority of Kane's contributions in the last 25 minutes came out right or positioned just into that side's channel. The 21-year-old was little real threat to Stoke out there, but he persevered nonetheless.
He won free-kicks and throw-ins off Marko Arnautovic and Marc Muniesa, and he attracted the attention of Shawcross, too. The striker's battles with Stoke's centre-backs were about the only exertions from a Spurs player to stoke the competitive juices all day.
Tottenham were poor against a more motivated Stoke side, but that performance would have been truly abject without Kane's desperate ripostes.
Valiant but fruitless, all right.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
