Home » Kane has invented a new superman role [opinion]

Kane has invented a new superman role [opinion]

By The Boy -
My thanks to Keith Browning – who tells me that he’s slightly younger
than young Roy Hodgson.

As someone who had the very best football coaching imaginable during my three years at Loughborough College 1970-73, having been a Spurs supporter since the double year, I have always regarded myself as a student of the game as well as a spectator and a supporter – all very different facets of watching football. (I also was a referee and took some important games)

There have been various innovations in my time, all of which filtered from top to bottom through the game, many with quite disastrous results.
I remember George Cohen being the first full-back ever to get his feet wet by crossing the halfway line, overlapping his teammates and then crossing the ball either into the back of the Fulham Kop, or frequently into the Thames. I don’t think he ever had an assist via the head of a young Allan Clarke.

This developed into the full-back who tried long-range shooting, from outside the box. Again the fans in the various Cop ends were in grave danger, although Terry Cooper and a couple of the Liverpool fullbacks did find the net once or twice. I’m not sure Cyril or Joe ever did.

Next, when I was at Loughborough, came the Woolwich double year, and I was fortunate to be coached for my FA Badge by one of their defensive coaches, Colin Murphy. Their motto was that the ball mustn’t touch the ground in their own penalty area, and with Bob Wilson in goal, another Loughborough old boy, it would be difficult for the opposition to ever score. This proved correct and so 1-0 to the A****** was born, but it also killed football stone dead for most of the decade.

Then came news from abroad – Total football from the Dutch and the Sweeper from Herr Beckenbauer. I took a school party to Holland in 1976 and it transformed all my teams – School, County schools and Senior League Adults.

Putting your quickest and MOST INTELLIGENT player as the sweeper, playing slightly behind a tall centre half and two solid fullbacks made my team almost unbeatable. It was a system that almost won QPR the 1st Division one year.

Football slumbered in mediocrity for a decade or so as Man Utd relied for their results on referees who couldn’t tell the time and wouldn’t recognise a foul by a player in a Red shirt if you paid them. (little joke there).

Next came the Spanish and tikka-takka (tippy-tappy). This developed because the Spanish could never score enough goals and were unable to shoot. So, they developed a style that meant you could walk the ball into the net. Spain’s national team were not allowed to shoot from outside the box!

This also allowed for a team to be vertically challenged so that only two players and the goalie had to be bigger than 5ft 3ins.

The problem here is that in England (jumpers for goalposts) the idea of anything resembling consecutive passes was an enigma (impossible). By the time our coaches were coaching possession football, the era had moved on.
As the antidote to Spain and Barça, English football developed the lone striker. Nine men behind the ball and a big man upfront on his own.

Again, this was fatally flawed because the role model was Didier Drogba – one of the great players of all time – but trying to find another wasn’t easy. Everyone tried it and so developed the ‘THREE at the BACK. which has killed the centre forward position almost stone dead. Note that all successful Spurs teams had dual striking partnerships. Two is always better than one.

To counter all this stuff, along came, ‘play it out from the back’ – a development of Tika-taka – but for those of even higher levels of ball skill – you need a Double First at Oxford in ball skills and passing to play it effectively. It just seems like a way of time-wasting and if I was playing Man City I would have my players sat in deckchairs on the halfway line and let them get on with it. 

How many very soft goals have been given away and how many teams relegated (Bournemouth being the obvious one) for a refusal to keep the ball as far away from their goal as possible. The poor Norwich team on Friday were consistently embarrassing themselves playing a system of which nobody is capable.

Along with this, I found out some five years ago that the UEFA coaching badge was advocating – ‘There should be no PLAN B if PLAN A wasn’t working – just perform Plan A better. So, no longer do we see the centre half playing as a twin centre forward in the last ten minutes or taking off a full back and putting on an extra attacking midfielder.

The very latest ‘innovation’ is the ‘wing back’, which takes me back to George Cohen and his over-lapping crosses into the River Thames (the new stand will prevent that in future). Suddenly Chelsea and Liverpool find the system works for them and so everyone copies them. To play the role properly, you need three lungs, the speed of Usain Bolt… the tackling capability of Maldini and the crossing ability of Glenn Hoddle, You also need a great football brain to make sure you are at the right end of the pitch at the right time. It’s not feasible in the long term. 

The other thing that is noticeable, mainly due to BBC showing early rounds of the FA Cup, is that the most successful giant-killers play 4-4-2, usually with a beast of a centre forward and a tricky speedster.

They also, without exception, have a strong leader on the pitch, usually somewhere in the middle. It is football that would be recognisable since the 1960s. It certainly baffles teams 6 or 7 leagues higher in the pyramid on a regular basis (watch out on Tuesday)

So, to Harry Kane. A centre forward of the very old school who scored goals for fun until everybody stopped passing to him. This was especially true for England when he had to feed off scraps. I don’t think Sterling ever passed to him, except by accident. So Harry started to hunt the ball and because he is a hard-working professional must have spent hours practising his passing.

Something none of the rest of the team thinks important. Suddenly, his passing for England became the feature of his play and this has developed to make him the most creative midfielder,  in world football at the moment. He is still supposed to perform like a Bobby Smith, Gilzean or Chivers at the same time, but he is coping well with the double role.

The loan striker is now dead, notably from the experience of the Chelsea man Lukaku having just 7 touches in the game, three of which were kick-offs. One against three will never work anymore.

So, Kane has invented a new superman role, just as Messi, Ronaldo, Makelele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff and Cohen did. All very different players, but all re-inventing a new position on the pitch. It will soon be known as the Kane role, but how many others have the ability to play it – but everyone will try.

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Sonificent
Sonificent
2 years ago

What a wonderfully written article btw. Football isn’t changing for the better IMHO.

Sonificent
Sonificent
2 years ago

Liverpool managed not to ruin Gerard who played a long innings. Harry deserves better than the cluster of caaaaants that is Enic.

Paul
Paul
2 years ago
Reply to  Marbella Spur

Why can’t they just be right and left backs and 2 central defender. 3 at the back basically has no wingbacks in the formation before a ball is kick. Technically they are midfielders as that would be the declared position in the formation 343. That is why am so confused. Why can’t the natural wingers in the 343 provide the width and the so called wingbacks/midfielders tuck in to protect the middle and defend. You you know why managers do not want to be accused of playing 4 or 5 midfielders. But in reality that is how they line up. So if they play the way they lineup we do not have wingbacks like I said before. 3 defenders, 4 or 5 midfielders and or 2 or 3 forwards. That is why 343 is rubbish while 442 433 or 424 in the olden days are the best and most versatile formation. You can come out of them anytime without changing personnel. And man mark you if want to take a player out the game.

Last edited 2 years ago by Paul
Billy Tonsils
Billy Tonsils
2 years ago

I can only hop Cont or the bald assassin that accompanies him has learned to forge the Poison Dwarves Signature mimic his voice and have taken finger print moulds so come summer Daniel finds himself locked in the Cupboard del Sol while we buy some proper quality…

Lord Croker
Lord Croker
2 years ago
Reply to  JimmyGrievance

Agree wholeheartedly.

Marbella Spur
Marbella Spur
2 years ago
Reply to  coys1882

Wow, and I thought that football was a simple game. I think I’ll have to lie down with a cold compress on my head and rethink my ideas having watched the game for sixty years!

Elevenstonedidiots
Elevenstonedidiots
2 years ago

Kane has taken his game to another level he’s like a hybrid of KDB and Alan Shearer. He’d be looked after by Pep, getting rest against Cl and PL minnows and could have another 4/5 good years left in him.

coys1882
coys1882
2 years ago
Reply to  legoverlass

Indeed, spot on observations!

coys1882
coys1882
2 years ago
Reply to  Keith Browning

No problem, I enjoyed your article Keith. The homophone reference was just a humourous aside on my part!

coys1882
coys1882
2 years ago
Reply to  Marbella Spur

The distinction MS is only in the formation.

If it’s a flat back four, as in a 4-4-2, then they are referred to as ‘full backs’. If it’s three at the back, as in 3-5-2, then the two ‘wide men’ in your 5 man midfield, are the ‘wing backs’. Of course if the formation is changed for tactical reasons during the course of a game, then a ‘wing back’ might be required to drop back to ‘full back’, if switching to a flat back four, or indeed vice versa if switching from a 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2.

It is also possible that in a 4-4-2, the two wide players in the 4 man midfield, could also be wing backs, playing in front of the two fullbacks, or one of the two wide midfield players could be a wing back. It depends on the personnel that have been picked and the nuances of how they are deployed tactically.

Last edited 2 years ago by coys1882
Marbella Spur
Marbella Spur
2 years ago
Reply to  Paul

Join the club, as Jimmy Graves used to say, “it’s a funny old game”.

Paul
Paul
2 years ago
Reply to  Marbella Spur

I never know the distinction myself and hope someone can explain to me. I only remember 1986 world cup when Josimar a right back was flying down the flank like a winger. Prior to that I do not remember any right back crossing the half line except on set plays. Now we have Centerbacks, right footed and left footed and two footed I guess if they in the middle of 3. And the wingbacks who spend more time running up and down the flanks and never play 5 minutes of defense. Am confused.

JimmyGrievance
JimmyGrievance
2 years ago

As a UEFA licenced coach and having worked for Spurs academy for many years. I look at footballers who have broken into the world of professional football in the last 5 years or so and often wondered how they managed to do so. When I look at players like Serge Aurier as an example we have a player here who didn’t even know how to take a throw in. Positionally he’s didn’t really understand the role he was required to play.

Now, some might say it’s not his job to take throw ins or positionally that’s not where he plays. But ! He’s a professional footballer and as such should have an understanding of the basics of the game ( throw ins) Positionally he should also understand the role of all the formations and positions within it and what’s expected of not just himself but also that of his team mates.

This moves us neatly into the difference in a player like Aurier and Harry Kane. Kane is a thinker, an observer. He knows not just his role but also the role of those sent to defend against him. He knows their strengths and weaknesses. He exploits their weaknesses. He also understands the roles of his own midfield. He’s seen we have a weakness. We lack a play maker that creative spark. I think he knows the clocks ticking for him as an out an out CF. (Rooney did the same.) HK is developing a new role for himself not just for the time he has left at Spurs but one he can take with him and continue longer as a professional footballer.

He’ll always get goals he has that instinct and brain to get them. He’s adding creative midfielder to his locker which as the author says, turns him into a superman.

legoverlass
legoverlass
2 years ago

Levy is clearly salivating at the fact that Kane can play two roles and save him having to bring in a quality creative midfielder to link the play from defence to attack. Since Ericksen and Dembele have left there has been a gaping hole in our midfield that other team’s midfielders just ruin through unchallenged on many occasions We end up with Hoijberg, Skipp and Winks who are all predominantly noncreative midfielders who generally drop deep and struggle for the most part to hit an accurate defence splitting pass. Unless it’s back towards our own defence. Kane is indeed a one-man team and his partnership with Sonny is very special. However, if Kane picks up an injury that effectively means we lose two players and three if you count in the impact Kane’s absence has on Sonny most times. We apparently are a top-four chasing EPL club that has a billion-dollar stadium, world-class training facilities(with its own hotel) , and possibly the top coach in the world at the moment. The fact that our bench against Middlesborough and Leeds will and did include Scarlett, Devine, and White shows if it needed to that our squad is wafer-thin and hugely underinvested in

Keith Browning
Keith Browning
2 years ago
Reply to  coys1882

Sorry that the spellchecker failed me. The ‘lone’ striker is now dead but the ‘loan’ striker still alive and well as 11pm approaches on Transfer Deadline Day.

England Mike
England Mike
2 years ago

Kane is a one-off , there is no other player who can do what he does in defence, midfield and up top, his partnership with Son is remarkable.
It is simply a travesty of justice that they have not achieved substantially more in the game than what they have to show for their exploits in a Spurs shirt.

Marbella Spur
Marbella Spur
2 years ago

I do not have the football CV of the learned writer but I stared watching Spurs in 1962 and followed Ajax assiduously whilst they won three European Cups as I loved their style of football. I have to say that I am continually bemused between full backs and wing backs. Perhaps I have misunderstood a certain premise but Liverpool play a flat back four with what appears to my somewhat naive football mind with two attacking full backs. Chelsea play with three CBs, akin to ourselves, with two wing backs. I am struggling to tell the difference between how George Cohen played and what Alexander Trent Arnold does apart from their differing levels of fitness. In other words , when are they full backs and when are they wing backs?

coys1882
coys1882
2 years ago

It took me a while to figure out the erroneous homophone, regarding ‘loan’ strikers! Actually we had two ‘loan’ strikers last year … Gareth Bale and ‘Sid’ Vinicious! This year, thanks to Levy’s incompetence, but one ‘lone’ striker again … Harry Kane! Actually only for half of the year, because for the first half of the season HK didn’t show up.

Now suddenly rejuvenated and three times fitter physically, under Antonio, once again HK is looking like a world beater. Having supported Spurs since ’63 I’ve seen every striker we have paraded in a Spurs shirt for the last 60 years and I can safely say I have never seen ANY striker, playing for Spurs or otherwise, that could pick a pass like Kane.

Harry can pass a ball better than any number 9 I have ever seen in a lifetime of watching football. His vision and precision, as exemplified last Saturday, with Sonny’s goal, is astonishing and rivals any of the midfield greats I have ever seen play, the likes of Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Hoddle, etc, as well as modern stars like Messi, de Bruyne, etc.

Sadly, it’s a damning indictment of Levy and ENIC’s 20+ years of grotesque under-achievement, that the best ever strike partnership in EPL history, statistically, has won not one single trophy together. It has been milked for all it is worth by parasitic ownership, but not aided to achieve glory. The Levy apologists still out there should let that sobering fact sink in.

Last edited 2 years ago by coys1882
Sam-I-Am
Sam-I-Am
2 years ago

A scholarly article indeed. 😂 Thank you for a funny run down footballing memory lane. You’re absolutely right: many will copy but few will achieve Kane’s superman role.

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