Arsenal legend David Seaman has expressed his distaste with how Tottenham Hotspur talisman Harry Kane has been playing over the past few campaigns.
Kane started his evolution into more of a well-rounded player under Jose Mourinho, which saw him become a creator and a goalscoring threat at the same time.
The centre-forward won the Premier League Golden Boot and Playmaker Awards for the 2020-21 season as a result of his newfound strengths (Premier League).
The England captain has further evolved his game with Antonio Conte’s help to find the right balance between his playmaking and striker role.
That saw Kane achieve a tally of 20 goals and nine assists from 37 matches (Transfermarkt) across all competitions since the Italian boss took over the managing role.
Not to mention, there have also been many sequences where Kane was responsible for creating a goal, but did not earn an actual assist for his efforts. Despite that, Seaman is not impressed with the influence the 29-year-old has had on Tottenham’s style of play.
The former keeper prefers his strikers to always be a presence in the box, like Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrovic. He argued that centre-forwards are supposed to finish off chances, unlike Kane, who often drops too deep to get involved in the build-up play.
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Speaking on his Seaman Says Podcast Seaman said (08/08/22): “I wasn’t surprised to see Mitrovic scoring.
“He has the knack of being in the box, he doesn’t link-up play too much, he’s always waiting in and around the box and that’s what you want your striker to be doing.
“I have this gripe with Harry Kane how he drops way too deep all the time. I watched a clip the other day where they’d scored their goal and I thought ‘has Kane been brought off?’ Then all of a sudden he came into shot because he’d been so deep.”
Spurs Web Opinion:
Seaman’s ‘criticism’ is quite a narrow-minded way of thinking as modern football has evolved a lot to the extent that it is normal for strikers to have a bigger role than just scoring these days. In fact, Spurs have been overly reliant on Kane for chance creation in the final third at times in previous campaigns.
What’s more, Seaman’s former side employ Gabriel Jesus as their centre-forward, who also drops deep to get involved in the build-up under Mikel Arteta.
Kane’s creative influence is not coming at the cost of his goalscoring abilities, so there is no reason for him to change his game, with the team also being benefited from his ability to generate opportunities.
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