Harry Kane’s impressive Dream Team season partially obscured by Erling Haaland’s nonsense numbers
IN pretty much any other season, Harry Kane (£7.6m) would be the Premier League’s headline act for scoring 16 goals before the end of January.
The 29-year-old is on track for a 30-goal campaign in the top flight, something he’s only achieved once before, in 2017/18.
However, Kane’s mightily impressive effort has been partially obscured by Erling Haaland (£8.8m), English football’s new apex predator.
Manchester City’s No9 has started writing a new chapter in the Premier League record books having plundered 25 goals from his first 19 appearances.
At the halfway stage, the prolific Norwegian poacher is just seven goals shy of Mohamed Salah’s (£8.6m) record of 32 goals in a 38-game season and he’s nine short of the record jointly held by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer for most goals (34) in a single Prem campaign, both achieved when the league contained 22 teams.
Such has been the remarkable nature of Haaland’s nonsense, Kane’s campaign has seemed distinctly normal in comparison.
In reality, however, the England captain has once again underlined his credentials as a world-class centre-forward.
This is particularly true given the problems Tottenham are currently experiencing in regards to attacking fluency.
Take nothing away from Haaland, he is unmatched at what he does, but leading the line for Man City is a considerably more desirable role than fronting up Antonio Conte’s side right now.
On Monday night, Kane scored the only goal as Spurs beat Fulham 1-0 at Craven Cottage, a good result given the Cottagers results upon their return to the top flight.
In doing so, the three-time Golden Boot winner equalled Jimmy Greaves’ record of 266 goals for the club.
Additionally, his next league goal will be his 200th, a landmark previously reached by just two players: Wayne Rooney and the aforementioned Shearer.
There will always be talk of trophies (or lack thereof) when Kane is the topic of discussion but to doubt his pedigree as an individual is to deny clear truth.
Naturally, Spurs’ No10 is set for another prosperous Dream Team campaign.
A Star Man display in west London on Monday night moved him onto 158 points in total, making him the third-best asset in his position -behind Marcus Rashford (£5.4m) and Haaland – and the fourth-best player overall.
He’s a full 72 points ahead of his next-best team-mate, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (£3.3m), an indication of how reliant Spurs are on their top scorer this term, especially with Son Heung-min (£5m) enduring a rare fallow period.
It’s thanks to Kane that Conte’s troops are still in the hunt for Champions League qualification and whether they finish inside the top four or not, Dream Team gaffers can rely on the Three Lions marksman to deliver plentiful returns as long as he’s fit.