Kane’s new role gives Spurs more: Rodgers
Leicester boss believes striker playing deeper adds to his game
BRENDAN Rodgers believes Jose Mourinho has added another string to Harry Kane’s bow by playing the striker in a deeper role.
Some observers believe Kane’s scoring prowess has been diluted by dropping back, while Michael Owen recently suggested the England captain must find it “frustrating”.
Playing the country’s premier goalscorer as more of an attacking midfielder seems a bold move by Mourinho, but Leicester boss Rodgers insisted: “I don’t think it is.
“I think if you look through the game, you look at Roberto Firmino, he does a similar role for Liverpool. Lionel Messi did it for Barcelona. Other players have done it all through time.
“You’re not seeing something being taken away from Harry’s game. You’re seeing something that’s been added to his game.
“He’s clearly a wonderful goalscorer with great ability, finishing in and around 25 or 30 yards out.
“But what you’re now seeing also is the ability of a player to drop underneath, and make passes like a midfield player.
“In Harry you can see he’s a wonderful player, he’s got a great football brain.
“So it’s an addition to how they play rather than something taken away from them.”
Rodgers can counter Kane’s threat tomorrow by welcoming back Jonny Evans from suspension and fit-again Timothy Castagne.
The Belgian full-back had been one of City’s most impressive performers until he suffered a hamstring injury two months ago.
Rodgers said: “He’s got great energy and can run in behind. He gives us a good profile in terms of defending set-pieces. He’ll be a huge plus.
“When he’s defending he really gets in contention with people. From a set-piece perspective, he’s a good size so he can defend the box well.
“On the attacking side, he’s so good at penetrating without the ball. He wants to get up there and score goals. It definitely improves our squad.”
Meanwhile, Jose Mourinho says Steven Bergwijn has the club’s full support after he received online abuse in the wake of Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat to Liverpool.
The Dutchman was targeted on social media after missing two one-on-one chances in the second half at Anfield, where the hosts went on to score an injury-time winner.
Bergwijn was forced to restrict comments on his Instagram page following a flurry of unpleasant messages.
“I don’t know what can I do apart from the player knowing that in this club we are all together,” Mourinho said.
“I know that in some clubs, with some people, is the culture of, ‘they lost or we drew but I won’. In here, no. In here, we lose, we win, we draw all together.
“So, he has us. In here, we don’t feel any individualised criticism. We never feel it that way. We always feel it’s always about us. So no problem.
“He’s one of my boys. Period. There’s no point for me to individualise. He’s a good professional, he works hard for the team. He gives everything he can. That’s it.”
Spurs should have Gareth Bale back tomorrow after the Wales international missed the last two matches through illness.
But has returned to training over the last couple of days.
“He’s fine,” Mourinho said. “Trained Thursday with the team, trained today with the team. Looks OK. So if Saturday, he does it normally like he did normally in the last two days, he’s fine.
“No new injuries. (Japhet) Tanganga is out. And (Erik) Lamela trained I cannot say 100 per cent with the team, but it was the first day when he did a couple of exercises with us, so coming to the end of his injury. But of course not ready to play, not even very close.”