Harry Kane struggling for form since his failed move away from Spurs

Tottenham and England striker Harry Kane has been struggling to find his scoring boots since the start of the season. He hasn’t found the back of the net in four games so far. The 28-year-old’s desired move to Manchester City was the hottest topic of the summer transfer window. However the move never happened and the prolific striker was forced to remain in London. The last time Kane went four Tottenham games without scoring was in 2019 when Spurs reached the final of the Champions League.

Kane is undoubtedly one of the most lethal strikers in world football right now. He very rarely goes through such goal scoring droughts and has the ability to get out of such situations. But Gary Neville’s analysis after Tottenham’s 3-0 loss to Chelsea may have a serious point to address.

“He looked despondent towards the end,” said Gary Neville, reflecting in the Sky Sports podcast on Kane’s performance in Sunday’s match.

“He’ll be thinking, ‘I’m here again, playing at Tottenham, we’re not going to challenge for titles or get into the top four’.

“He wanted more, he wanted to go and challenge for titles. This Chelsea team will challenge for titles.”

As per the reports, Kane was desperate to move away from Spurs this summer after yet another trophyless season. And it is learnt that he had a verbal agreement with Chairman Daniel Levy but things never happened as per the striker’s wishes despite having interests from Manchester City. 

Tottenham finished the last Premier League season in seventh spot but Kane once again had a brilliant season winning the Golden Boot award with 23 League goals.

Kane is one of those players whose greatest strength is his self confidence. Therefore it is important for such a player to be in the right frame of mind to perform well. But, if he is still thinking about the failed Man City move and not being able to challenge for the title, that could be a real cause of concern for the new Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

Nuno needs to find the right balance between attack and defence

During the match against Chelsea, Kane played on the left side of the front three. Consisting of Son Heung-min through the centre and Giovani Lo Celso on the right. Kane is pretty good at occasionally pulling himself back and thereby drawing the defenders towards him which will create space for Son to exploit. However, on Sunday, his touch map showed that he was getting back into his own half quite often. Which isn’t something you want to see from your best striker.

Maybe Nuno wanted to use Son’s pace up front and give a free role to Kane, but that certainly didn’t work on Sunday. Nuno, since arriving from Wolves this season, has tightened up the Spurs defence. Tottenham earned three back-to-back 1-0 league victories at the start but then slumped to two 3-0 defeats.

The defensive solidity of the team may be at the cost of fewer chances up front. Kane is not only down on goals from last season, he is also down on his shots, with only three on target this season compared to 10 in the first four Premier League games of last season.

It looks like Nuno has a serious issue to solve. He needs to find the right balance between attack and defence. Meanwhile If Tottenham wants to challenge for the Champions League spot they certainly need Kane to be firing on all cylinders.