Is that the end of the line now, Harry?
Defeat at dominant Leeds turns Kane’s head to big move...
IF Harry Kane was in any doubt how far he is away from winning trophies or playing Champions League football with Spurs, a comprehensive defeat in the pouring rain at Leeds should act as the final confirmation.
Interim manager Ryan Mason tried to build on last week’s win against Sheffield United by including all of Tottenham’s bighitters — Kane, Son Heung-min, Gareth Bale and Dele Alli — but it was the lesser names of Leeds who were hungrier and more adept, even if Spurs quibbled at a ruled-out Kane goal for offside at 1-1.
While Spurs were sluggish despite the incentive of European football, Marcelo Bielsa — 35 years Mason’s senior — clearly didn’t tell his mid-table Leeds side they had nothing left to play for.
They threw themselves at Spurs from the opening whistle and went ahead through Stuart Dallas. Even when Son equalised with the visitors’ first shot on target, Patrick Bamford restored the lead before half-time and substitute Rodrigo then sealed the win.
For Bamford, his first goal in six games was particularly sweet as he was able to celebrate in front of the watching England manager Gareth Southgate.
Kane’s mood was less gleeful. He had a frustrating afternoon with a goal chalked off for a marginal offside and a free-kick that struck the crossbar.
But he is intelligent enough to know that as a cohesive unit, Tottenham are not even at the level of Leeds, let alone Manchester City. Though they still have three games left and could still finish ahead of Leicester, Chelsea, West Ham and Liverpool, they are not realistically going to overhaul three of them to finish in the top four.
Indeed, they could be caught by Everton a nd, worryingly for c hai r man Daniel Levy t her e appeared a lack of fight from the international players representing one of the so-called Big Six.
Gareth Bale was hooked midway through the second half and still has not scored a Premier League goal away from home this season.
Hugo Lloris was Tottenham’s best and busiest player despite conceding three. His workload started early on with a block from
Bamford but he could not stop Leeds taking the lead after 14 minutes.
Jack Harrison beat Serge Aurier to fizz in a low cross which Sergio Reguilon diverted in the wrong direction inside the six-yard box.
Lloris showed sharp reflexes to save his team-mate the embarrassment of an own goal but his parry fell straight to Dallas, who gleefully hammered in from close range for his eighth goal of the season.
To t t e n h a m ’ s performance underlined why Jose Mourinho was reluctant to put all his big-name forwards in t he same l i ne- up but they do have the individual quality that earned them an equaliser against the run of play after 25 minutes. When Alli received the ball on the edge of the box, Kane made a dummy run to his left, allowing the England international to slot a clever pass to his right where Son was running into space.
Once clear, the South Korean had little trouble beating Illan Meslier for a goal against the run of play.
Leeds looked temporarily deflated but reacted in the positive way you’d expect from a Bielsa side.
Harrison found space on the left and fired in powerfully, forcing Lloris to fingertip over the bar and made the most of a stroke of luck when Kane dinked Alli’s pass over Meslier was ruled fractionally offside by the length of a big toe.
After 42 minutes, Leeds were ahead again. Left- back Ezgjan Alioski overlapped energetically and his cutback from the byline allowed Bamford to beat a static Eric Dier to make an easy finish.
Southgate would have noted that and some nice passes from Alli but Spurs were unabl e t o mount pressure consistently. Mason took off Alli and Bale but the main contribution of one substitute, Lucas Moura, was to get booked for an arm in Alioski’s face while the other replacement, Erik Lamela, could not beat Meslier when fed by Kane. The England captain also struck the bar from a 25-yard set-piece.
In contrast, Bielsa’s changes combined for the killer third goal. Raphinha dashed down the left and unselfishly played a ball into the unmarked Rodrigo who hammered in his first goal of 2021.
Mason described the defeat as ‘disappointing’ and said the outcome could have been different
had Kane’s goal stood at 1- 1. ‘I thought it was onside when I saw it on the touchline. I’ve seen it back since and my feeling hasn’t changed,’ he said.
‘Goals change things and if we’d gone 2- 1 up it is a completely different game of football. We created chances and some big moments in the second half but needed to take one of them. Late on, we had to open up and they caught us on the counter.’
Bielsa was delighted with his side’s response having flopped to defeat at Brighton last Saturday. ‘Considering the strength of the opponent and the way we attacked and defended, this was one of the best performances of the season,’ he said.
Leeds are set for a top-half finish following promotion. ‘I thought it would be possible to compete as equals. I looked at what we were capable of but football is hard to predict,’ added the Argentine.