STAN COLLYMORE Kane-calling by Conte won’t Morata a jot
COLLY RON’S BAN TOO LIGHT
Fwolwloww. Tew. eurk: @peoplesport THE fact that Antonio Conte gave Harry Kane the big-up in the summer not long after signing Alvaro Morata will not have mattered a jot to the Spain striker.
The Chelsea new boy will have had to put up with being told by the media – and probably in training – that he wasn’t as good as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Isco and Gareth Bale during his days at Real Madrid.
But he still took his chances when they came to him at the Bernabeu and scored one or two big goals for the club.
So with the greatest of respect to Kane, and Romelu Lukaku for that matter, I don’t think Morata will be too worried about going up against them in the Premier League.
I was asked last week whether I’d rather have Morata or Kane in my side, and it certainly had me thinking. As a former forward, I’ve got a lot of respect for them both and, while I plumped for Kane, just, it really all depends on what style of football a manager favours.
If you’re going to play a system which means your central striker can press high and often, or you’re going to play on the counter-attack, then you’d probably say Morata. He’s quicker than Kane, his movementt off the shoulder of a central defender is much faster, so he’d seriously benefit youu that way.
But if you’re lookingng for a good all-rounder, someone whoho can play both types of football in termss of holding the ball up and bringing othersers into play, as well as doing well whenhen he is facing goal, then you’d say the Tottenham and England man.
Kane ( right) has been een the epitome of consistency, winning the Golden Boot for the past ast two seasons.
And while Morata gotot off the mark, and might even ven have had a second in his 30-odd minute cameo last t week, we need to wait and see how he will do over the course of a 38-game Premier Leagueue season.
What you can say y about Morata, but can’t yet aboutut Kane, is that he has proved himself mself at the elite level of the global game.
Morata (right) has scored goals for Spain, Real and Juventus, while we’re still waiting to see whether or not Kane can do it at the business end of a World Cup or the Champions League.
It’ll be fascinating to see the pair of them in action today in what will be a big game for both clubs.
Can Tottenham silence the talk of a Wembley hoodoo at the first attempt and will Chelsea manager Conte get the reaction he needs from his champions?
I’m thinking we might see a draw, which would probably go someway towards answering both of those questions i n the positive.
Tottenham looked comfortable against Newcastle last week and would have won even if Jonjo Shelvey had not been sent off.
Clever
Chelsea were all over the shop in the first half against Burnley, but when Morata came on he changed the game for them. He ran in behind the Clarets’ def defence and gave us a glimpse of th the clever runs he makes. And if SpursSp go pressing in the wide-open ex expanses of Wembley, that should leave s spaces in behind for him to bend his run, dip in at the last minute Ian Rush-style and at l easteas get a c ouple of chances.ch AsA I know well, getting off the mark for your new club is a massive weightwe off the shoulderssh and Conte willw have spent the week building him up f or t his game in training.tr The Italian manager m might have made it sound lik like he fancied Kane in the sum summer, but Morata will have bee been told time and again by his bos boss that it was no reflection on h him. CRISTIANO RONALDO did not deserve the five-game ban which followed after he pushed a referee — he deserved a 10-game ban. If something like that had happened in a game of rugby, we’d be reading about a player being banned for half a season or maybe even a full one. When are we going to take this issue seriously and when are we going to accept that the official in the middle has a tough enough job already? This person is there to make the game run smoothly – not there to be harassed, bullied and pushed into a corner by players and managers. To be fair to the Spanish FA their ban did actually send out a firmer message than I’d have expected. They could have choked and said, ‘The transfer window is still open... we don’t want Ronaldo to move elsewhere!’. So they have showed some big cojones. There has been some criticism that Zinedine Zidane did not condemn his player’s actions. Yes, if the manager says you’re this, or that, you do take some notice. But when the governing body stops you playing for five games... then you never, ever do it again.