POCH: LAY OFF HARRY THE HERO

MAURICIO POCHETTINO believes snipers should have learned by now to stop taking aim at Harry Kane — as his ‘assassin’ heads into another purple patch of form. The Tottenham manager admitted he finds it odd that his striker draws bursts of criticism each season despite an astonishing scoring record over the past four years. The early focus this time around justifiably centred on whether Kane was fatigued after his World Cup summer. But just as doubts in previous campaigns gave way to goals, Kane has recovered this season to hit 10 in 15 in all competitions. That included both strikes in Tottenham’s 2-1 win over PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday and the 25-year-old travels to Crystal Palace today on the back of six strikes in the Premier League. ‘In England there are things you need to improve with your own players,’ said Pochettino. ‘Kane is English and sometimes you push him to paradise, then you put him on the outside. If Harry Kane is Italian and playing for the Italian side he will be more protected because they are more protective of their players. It’s similar to Spain. Here it is more up and down. You score, you are the best. If you don’t score, you are criticised.’ Kane took his Tottenham tally to 150 goals in 228 games against PSV and Pochettino said: ‘He wants to score, he is so determined to score goals. That is why sometimes when he doesn’t score he is so obsessed with scoring, that sometimes it is against him because you need more freedom, not to be obsessed.’