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Tottenham players will be absolutely furious with themselves after their late collapse meant they only drew with West Ham on Sunday.
There had been so many positives to the way they had built their 3-0 lead, with Harry Kane again playing a starring role, but all that good work was wasted when they couldn’t see the game.
Yes, the Spurs will feel badly done, because the free kick that led to Manuel Lanzini’s brilliant 94-minute equalizer shouldn’t have happened.
But ultimately, if you’re 3-0 up in any game with less than 10 minutes to go and you don’t win, you just have to blame yourself.
Kane is fresh, hungry, sharp, and smart
When Tottenham advanced in the first half, it was a pleasure to see them.
The entire Spurs team played up front with great creativity. They were so incisive that they easily opened up a West Ham team that is generally so well trained at the rear.
José Mourinho has a lot of attacking players at the top of his game, but Kane is looking very good at the moment. On Sunday he was fresh, hungry, smart and smart, and West Ham didn’t know how to deal with him in the first half.
Yeah, it helped that the Hammers were everywhere in the first half hour; his communication was bad, so they didn’t know who was picking up Kane, and there was no pressure on the ball, but he certainly made the most of that.
What has changed about Kane’s role?
Kane has always been more than a traditional number nine, because he has always had wonderful vision.
I think what he’s doing differently now is that he’s becoming more deliberate in deciding when to dig deep, which is when the space is there, and also at the times when he can hurt the opposition the most.
So when West Ham’s two central midfielders, Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek, went too high, he kept finding a space behind them that he knew his back three couldn’t get in, because Son Heung-min and Steven Bergwijn were staying. deliberately. much higher up the field.
He mixed his game based on what the opposition was doing, which is the sign of a really smart footballer, and his decision making is perfect right now, it has been since the beginning of the season.
The best example of any Premier League player who did that is Teddy Sheringham, who knew when to come in and when to stay high and play like the target.
Like Teddy, Kane has now also found a charming balance between playing as the playmaker, number 10, or a traditional center forward, number nine.
He doesn’t always dig deep to tie the game like he did when he set his team’s first goal; We saw it with the way he scored the next two.
Being as good as Harry at both is very rare – the variety in his game makes him one of the best forwards in the world.
Scorer and creator
I don’t see Kane more of a creator than a scorer now, because what he does will depend on what is happening in each game.
The Spurs no longer have a playmaker in the Christian Eriksen mold, but they have Tanguy Ndombele who can make those kinds of passes too.
The reason Kane is giving more assists than ever is because of how Tottenham’s team is set up now, with their wide-spread attackers a bit tighter and closer to Kane than before.
| Season | Games | Goals | Attend |
| 2020-21 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| 2019-20 | 29 | 18 | two |
| 2018-19 | 28 | 17 | 4 |
| 2017-18 | 37 | 30 | two |
| 2016-17 | 30 | 29 | 7 |
| 2015-16 | 38 | 25 | one |
| 2014-15 | 3. 4 | twenty-one | 4 |
Son, for example, can be a starter on the left wing, but often plays effectively as a forward.
The beauty of the Tottenham forward is that he has the ability to adapt and I think we will see Kane continue to play different roles in the coming weeks, changing his game to suit the occasion.
We know you can manipulate the game from deep down, but sometimes you will be up there holding the ball, and you can also get into the box and reach the end of the header.
Instead of consciously thinking that you need to do more than one thing, like create opportunities, for example, I think that you are getting better and better at all those different parts of your game as you mature, and also in knowing how you can do it. better manipulate the game.
When things started going like West Ham
When Kane put the Spurs up 3-0 after 16 minutes, it looked like the game was over and dusted. It should have been.
They got a little too comfortable in the second half, which is dangerous, but let’s give West Ham some credit too for showing some stamina and hunger to get back in the game – they took a chance and threw the men forward, and it was worth it.
The first two goals the Spurs conceded were disappointing for them because one was a set piece and for the other Lucas Moura lost his man. He had just come off the bench and was not quite focused or on the pace of the game.
But Lanzini’s third goal was incredible. An absolute world of strike. There wasn’t much they could do about it.
Before that, the Spurs had opportunities to seal it when Kane hit the post at 3-0 and then at 3-2, Gareth Bale passed but missed by an inch.
Everything was starting to go the way of West Ham and Tottenham’s mentality changed so that they were on the defensive.
Watching him in the MOTD2 production office, we felt like a third Hammers goal was coming, although no one could have known it would be such a spectacular hit.
It’s a missed opportunity for the Spurs, because the victory should definitely have been theirs, but I wouldn’t judge them, or their prospects for the season, based solely on this result.
There have been many encouraging signs in the past weeks, but other reminders that they are still a work in progress – so I wouldn’t say they are fragile at the rear just because they have lost a 3-0 lead, more than they already have. there were. question marks around your defense that have not disappeared.
I still think the top four are a realistic target for them, but talking about challenges for the title is too premature. That wouldn’t have changed even if they had stuck around to beat West Ham.
Danny Murphy was talking to Chris Bevan of BBC Sport.
