How Does Tottenham's Harry Kane Compare Statistically to Europe's Elite Forwards

Harry Kane has enjoyed a sensational second season of top-flight football for Tottenham Hotspur. 

After a debut campaign in which he scored 31 times in all competitions, the 22-year-old was expected to regress. 

Instead, he has hit 28 goals in 48 appearances. His overall strike rate has fallen slightly from 0.60 goals per game to 0.58, but he has set a new personal record with 25 league goals, four more than last season. 

According to Eurosport (h/t Yahoo! Sport), the Premier League ranked third of the five major European leagues in terms of goals per game in 2014-15. 

Given that context, Kane's back-to-back 20-goal seasons are a particularly weighty argument for his inclusion in the elite category of European strikers. 

He leads the Premier League Golden Boot rankings after 36 games, having scored two more than Manchester City's Sergio Aguero and three more than Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy. 

Regardless of whether he claims that particular bauble this season, there is no doubting Kane now sits in the top echelon of strikers across Europe. 

In fact, only seven players have accrued more points in the race for the European Golden Shoe this season, and Kane is level with Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi. 

Only Barcelona's Luis Suarez (35), Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo (31), Benfica's Jonas (31) and Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain (30) are significantly beyond Kane across Europe's top five leagues. Zlatan Ibrahimovic also has 34 goals in Ligue 1. 

Of course, goals alone are an insufficient measure of a striker's quality. They represent the strength of teammates and opposition as well as other less quantifiable factors. 

Perhaps Kane's greatest single strength is the remarkable accuracy of his shooting. He has made a powerful, low shot across goal into the far corner a trademark. 

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According to Squawka, Kane's 64 percent shooting accuracy exceeds every leading forward across Europe except Jonas who has posted an astonishing 71 percent in the Portuguese Liga. 

Ronaldo (51 percent), Higuain (57 percent), Antoine Griezmann (56 percent), Lewandowski (59 percent) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (58 percent) rank among European stars with significantly worse shooting accuracy. 

In combination with his ranking as the seventh-most prolific shooter (via WhoScored), Kane is undeniably one of the deadliest forwards in Europe. 

The best forwards often create as many goals as they score. In this framework, Kane ranks in the middle of the pack. 

His 41 chances created this season put him ahead of Benzema (38) and Aguero (24) as well as Lewandowski (20) and Jonas (10) but well behind the most creative forwards. Messi tops the list with 69 chances created, ahead of Suarez (51), Griezmann (52) and Higuain (49).

Kane has also registered just one assist with virtually all his rivals exceeding that total. Lewandowski (one) and Aguero (zero) are the only exceptions. This relative paucity of assists suggests relative profligacy from his teammates. 

Arguably the most significant statistic for a goalscoring forward is their conversion rate. 

Kane's shot-to-goal conversion rate is approximately 17 percent, meaning that he scores from roughly one in every six shots. These numbers are almost identical to Messi's La Liga statistics, while Ronaldo has slightly inferior numbers at 14 percent. 

While Kane is in good company, he sits well behind Europe's most efficient forwards. Lewandowski (18.5 percent), Aguero (20 percent), Griezmann (24 percent), Aubameyang (22 percent), Higuain (19 percent) and Ibrahimovic (24.5 percent) are all well in front of the Spurs man in their ability to turn shots into goals.

The contrast between accuracy and conversion rate is worthy of deeper investigation. Kane has the biggest differential of all leading forwards between these two sets of statistics with roughly 25 percent of his on-target attempts resulting in goals.

Either Kane is consistently facing overperforming goalkeepers or his shots on target are not hit into dangerous areas often enough.

Last season, Kane scored with 21 of his 47 shots on target in the Premier League. That is an incredible conversion rate that was always likely to be difficult to reproduce.

Some reduction from that level of efficiency was always expected, but Kane does appear to have also been unluckier than many of his peers.   

The Tottenham man is one of Europe's most dangerous forwards. To say anything less would be to deny objective facts and almost certainly betray some kind of bias. 

After his strike in the 2-2 draw with Chelsea, Kane has reached at least 30 goals in back-to-back seasons, and he has admitted that Alan Shearer's Premier League record of 260 goals is his target. 

Having hit 49 goals in his first two seasons, Kane would need to match that output for a decade more which puts Shearer's achievement into its proper, astonishing context. 

Not since Kevin Phillips in 1999-2000 has an English player topped the division's scoring list for a season, but Kane looks likely to end the drought this campaign. 

His shooting accuracy matches or exceeds virtually all comparable players across Europe, and his conversion rate remains strong despite falling from last season's remarkable level. 

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Kane is also at a disadvantage to most of the players with whom he is being compared in terms of the quality of his teammates. 

While Tottenham have been one of the Premier League's finest performers this season, that has been more a result of collective performance than individual brilliance. 

Man for man, Spurs aren't nearly as strong as Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain. They were also humbled in two meetings with Dortmund in the UEFA Europa League earlier in this campaign. 

Kane would likely perform even better if surrounded with the quality teammates that help players like Messi, Ronaldo and Lewandowski to shine. 

Next season, as Spurs' young team continues to mature and coalesce around Kane's quality, his statistical performance is likely to lift yet higher. 

Already comfortable among Europe's elite, Kane could take his game to another level if players like Dele Alli, Erik Lamela and Heung-Min Son—none of whom are over the age of 24—continue to grow by his side.

Advanced stats courtesy Squawka unless otherwise noted.