Tottenham’s Harry Kane maturing into one of world’s top strikers

As Tottenham Hotspur completed yet another 4-0 victory against Stoke City, the mind drifted towards Vincent Janssen. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment: you have arrived at a new club in a new country as a £17m centre-forward and two thirds into the season have scored only four times and not once from open play. You are desperate to prove your worth and as you sit on the bench on a grey afternoon in north London you see the man keeping you out of the team score his third hat-trick in nine games.

It is enough to make a Dutchman pine for a return home, yet for everyone else associated with the hosts there was only glee to taken from Harry Kane’s contribution here. One of their own and a wonderful goalscorer.

That final point is worth underlying because, even now, there remains scepticism over Kane’s worth. Some argue he is not world class, others that he is not even England’s best striker, yet the simple fact is the numbers do not lie. This is a player who has now scored over 20 goals in three consecutive seasons and with his first here reached 100 club goals, across loan spells at Leyton Orient, Millwall and Leicester City and, most emphatically, for Tottenham.

“Harry has the profile to be a legend here,” the Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino said after this contest of a player who, it should be remembered, is only 23. There is more to come and what Kane showed here is just how complete he already appears in his abilities to wound opposition sides.

He led the line perfectly in the hosts’ 3-4-2-1 formation, a constant outlet for his team-mates and a constant nuisance for Stoke’s defenders up until his substitution on 86 minutes, and with his first two goals in particular highlighted his ability to score goals of varying type.

Seizing on Ryan Shawcross’s loss of control inside a crowded Stoke area, Kane opened the scoring on 14 minutes with a low right-footed drive into the far corner having brought the ball under control with a perfectly weighted touch. Eighteen minutes later he struck with a left-footed volley from outside the area. Kane may have been unmarked as Christian Eriksen swung a corner in his direction but there remained a lot to do and the manner in which Kane got his body over the ball and put enough power through the shot so it fizzed through Victor Wanyama’s legs and into the far corner of the net, giving Stoke’s goalkeeper Lee Grant no chance of keeping it out, was impossible not to admire.

The third goal, on 37 minutes, was somewhat fortuitous given Kane’s long-range drive via Eriksen’s tapped free-kick deflected off Peter Crouch before wrong-footing Grant but, as Kane said himself, “if you don’t shoot you don’t score”. And besides, there was still more to come from Kane in the shape of his contribution to the hosts’ fourth goal in first-half stoppage time, leaving Bruno Martins Indi for dead with an exquisite touch by the right touchline before driving into the area and playing a pass into the path of the on-rushing Dele Alli. The midfielder, in full redemption mode following his sending off in Thursday’s Europa League draw with Gent, finished emphatically.

Barring a spell either side of the first goal Stoke did not put up much of a fight here, with this arguably their meekest display across the three successive hammerings they have been dealt by Tottenham in the past 10 months. Mark Hughes’s men were there for the taking but, as the saying goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you and that is what the hosts did to record their eight successive home league victory and one that not only provided the perfect response to their exit from the Europa League but also moved them back to second place in the Premier League and within 10 points of leaders Chelsea.

Pochettino has not given up on Tottenham winning the title and if that is to happen it is crucial Kane remains fit until the end of the season. He is now the division’s joint top-scorer with 17 goals and one can only imagine how many more the England international would have scored were it not for the ankle injury he sustained in September that subsequently kept him out of action for seven weeks.

“He is one of the best strikers in the world,” Pochettino said in further praise of Kane. “He is very professional and someone with a strong character.” The good news for Tottenham is that he also appears content to stay at the club for some time. Good news for everyone there except, perhaps, Vincent Janssen.