Tony Cascarino has ridiculously claimed that Harry Kane isn’t as good as he was three years ago.
Kane won the World Cup Golden Boot in 2018 and the England captain remains one of the top strikers in the Premier League.
He has suffered from injuries over the past few seasons. He was struck by an injury again last season, but he recovered in time to partake in the Premier League’s restart and he was in fine form, scoring goals to help Spurs end the campaign in a European place.
He will look to fire the Lilywhites to a trophy this season, but Cascarino claims that he isn’t at the same level that he was three years and he even compared his injury record to that of Michael Owen and Alan Shearer.
Former journeyman footballer Cascarino said on TalkSport: “Harry’s 27 years old now. He’s captain. Been an incredible goalscorer. He’s quite clearly England’s best striker.
“Is he as good as what he was three years ago? No he’s not.
“I say that because Alan Shearer was an incredible player. I played against him, watched him and he was a fantastic striker and continued to be a great striker, continued to get goals but had bad injuries.
“Harry’s had bad injuries. The tendon in his hamstring was the same as Michael Owen had. It’s a big problem.
“He’s had a number of ankle issues to deal with. He’s had injuries every year.
“Harry will still continue to get goals. He will still be England’s best striker at the next two tournaments from the Euros to the next World Cup.
“I can’t see anyone getting in front of him but I don’t think he’s quite the same player he was.”
Cascarino really is a poor pundit, he is never insightful and basically says things purely to get attention. That said, hard to blame him really, it is a crowded field the punditry game and he has to make his name stand out somehow I suppose.
For the record, Kane scored 24 goals in 34 matches last season despite struggling with injuries and he will hope to stay injury-free in the coming campaign.
Well Kane has had to adapt to the injuries, a slight drop in pace.
He’s like Shearer mk 2, maybe a bit above that.
He’s better than Rooney when he slowed down…and a million times ahead of Owen after the injuries 😉
What absokute tosh. Did you see any of the Spurs games post lockdown? Kane was flying come the end of the season. Think of the goals he scored against Leicester snd Palace and tell me that is not a striker at the top of his game. What can’t be disputed is that Spurs are not the team we were 2-3 years ago. Kane gets less service than he did 2-3 yeaes ago. He is having to drop deeper to get on the ball.
He is the best striker in the league end of. Right foot, left foot, headers, tap ins, goals from distance – he has it all in his locker. Then add in his passing range and vision.
He woukd score 40 goals a season playing for City.
Bruva Bruce. No mek dem man below dishearten you man. Do your ting
Hmmmm ……… an impressively measured Willie.
Is a failed journeyman footballer turned pundit more insightful than a fella who pens a dozens pieces of repetitive blogs every day for a fan site and was never a pro footballer of any kind, failed journeyman or otherwsie? Maybe, maybe not.
I don’t see anything to argue with – Kane isn’t as sharp, fit, or mobile and looks to have lost both stamina and pace compared to 2-3 years ago. Your list of caveats – injury, overused, etc is true enough – but scoring a few goals while looking slow and off the pace during the weird season resumption period isn’t really an argument against him having lost sharpness, etc.
Cascarino is more switched on that people give credit for.
In his memoirs he mentioned that by the age of 23 he had learned to tie his own shoelaces.