KANE SILENCES THE DOUBTERS
England forward has gone from ugly duckling to World Cup goal hero and vows to never let up
IT is hard to pinpoint the precise moment when it all changed so comprehensively for Harry Kane. He definitely wasn’t at this point when as a 17-year-old in 2010 he was invited to join in first-team training at Tottenham and Rafael van der Vaart was one of the stars of the side.
‘Harry Kane trained a few times with us,’ said Van der Vaart. ‘I remember his first time telling a team-mate: “He is so s**t! He can’t control the ball!”’
Van der Vaart posted his thoughts during the World Cup, making the point that even a player with such seemingly limited potential could develop into the ‘best striker in the world’.
But at some point between then and now the ugly duckling has turned into one of the world’s most iconic players. Last week he was again on the Ballon D’Or shortlist of the 30 best players in the world. He is, of course, the World Cup Golden Boot winner.
So it is natural that his performances will now be analysed in excruciating detail. That, at least, is Kane’s contention. ‘When you set the standards that I’ve set over the last few years and you fall a little bit below it, people are going to talk,’ he said, holding court against the sombre backdrop of a soulless and fan-less Rijeka Stadium on Friday night after a 0-0 draw against Croatia. From Moscow to the Adriatic, Kane is a star attraction, even when there are no fans. ‘That’s just the game we are in. I’m experienced enough now to know that and not get too high or too low. I just stay focused on my job and what I need to do.’
Then comes the wry smile. ‘In the Premier League I’m second-top goalscorer,’ he reminds us. Indeed, he has scored six goals in ten appearances for Tottenham. Conversely, he hasn’t scored for England in six games. He refers to that second-half header that came crashing off the bar on Friday night in the ghost of a game in the empty stadium. With Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling failing to supplant his goal-scoring exploits, and with Jamie Vardy retired, the onus falls ever more on Kane.
‘In the second half I think we played really well, we moved it quicker and got into more dangerous areas,’ he said. ‘Obviously I had one off the bar and Marcus had a couple that we probably should have scored, so overall we are happy with the performance — a bit more clinical and it would have been perfect.
‘I’d like to have scored more for England recently. But as a striker you go through spells where maybe it goes off the bar and other times it comes off your heel and goes in the back of the net.’
The latter of course is a knowing reference; for four games in the World Cup, everything was going in. Against Panama, his hat-trick was completed when Ruben LoftusCheek’s strike hit his heel and deflected over the goalkeeper. At that point, he clearly had the Midas Touch. ‘I set a standard for myself and I want to reach that standard every game I play,’ he added. ‘Sometimes you fall below it for one reason or another. It’s
about learning and improving and that is what I will do for the rest of my career. (Against Croatia on Friday) I thought we played well. It was a tough game. When you are up there, you just have to battle, hold it up, bring others into play, and I thought I did that well. For me, it’s just focus on my job for the team.’
What Kane will not countenance is that he is playing significantly differently from how he was in the first four matches of the World Cup. Though he would be inhuman if he didn’t feel the strain at all, and he admits as much.
‘I don’t think my game has dipped,’ he said, before adding: ‘It’s been tough after the World Cup not getting much rest but I think I dealt with it well. I’ve stayed fit and stayed healthy. That’s my main priority at the start of the season. Now it’s building on that and pushing forward over the winter period.’
The other aspect of World Cup fatigue is not the physical factor but the psychological burden of returning to the relatively mundane after experiencing the heightened and intensified emotions of a World Cup run and the visceral effect that has on the mind. There couldn’t have been a greater contrast than between a World Cup semi-final, perhaps the most important game you will ever play, and the UEFA Nations League fixture on Friday, which had the feel all the grandeur of a mundane reserve team match, given the ban on fans.
And Kane, who by nature is guarded, hints that is a factor for all the players after Russia. ‘It was a new experience for us,’ he said. ‘We had an amazing summer, a big high but ending on a low. It’s difficult, because every game we play for England now is not going to be as big as the semi-final and quarterfinal. It’s about adapting to that.’
Though there is some analysis to show that for Tottenham he has been taking fewer shots on goal since the ankle injury he sustained in March, he still has 19 goals in 28 games in that period, which is the scoring rate which elevates him to world elite.
In essence, he would argue that margins of scoring or missing are miniscule and the outcome, whether it is a goal or not, are huge in terms of assessing form. So there is an imbalance which can drive faulty analysis.
For example, in the World Cup semi-final, with England 1-0 up, Kane had a chance to square the ball for Sterling but shot against the post from an extremely narrow angle. Everyone initially thought he had taken the wrong decision. Turned out, after examining several camera angles and slo-mo replays that he hadn’t in fact missed:
It’s about learning and improving — and that is what I will do for the rest of my career
Croatian keeper Danijel Subasic had made an extraordinary save with his toe to prevent the shot going in. In any normal game, Kane would have scored, and England might now be hailing the man who fired them to a World Cup final.
‘I have said before against the top nations it is fine margins and they are the ones we have got to start turning in our favour,’ he said.
‘In the semi-final, we know we could have played better than we did,’ said Kane. ‘We hung in there and played a tough game. It went to extra-time but we could have played better, of course.’
And Friday night was a significant step forward in that respect. In the semi-final, they ended up being out-passed and out-classed by a midfield of Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic. On Friday, that never happened. England had 54 per cent of the possession; away from home against a Balkan side with perhaps the best international midfield in the world. That represents huge progress.
What next for a side building from the back, attempting to dominate possession? Spain away on Monday night in the raucous and fiercly patriotric atmosphere of the Estadio Benito Villamarin in Seville.
‘You look at the way they have played over the last 10 years or so, they have set that standard,’ said Kane. ‘We’re not quite there yet in that aspect, in the way they keep the ball. We’ve got different qualities. We’ve got great pace in the team, great one v one ability and that’s what we’ve got to try to exploit when we play them on Monday. It will be a tough game but these are the experiences you want to be in.’
So might he want a break for the game or can England rely on Kane? ‘I’ll be ready to go Monday for sure,’ he says without hesitation.