TOTTENHAM Hotspur’s season was over. At least, that was the fear held by many as Harry Kane walked down the tunnel at Spurs’ gleaming new stadium after just over an hour of their Champions League quarter final first leg against Manchester City.
So important is the striker to the fortunes of the North London side, his absence through injury would surely prove fatal to their hopes of a successful 2018/19 campaign. Such premonitions were understandable.
Kane has undoubtedly been Spurs’ best and most consistent player over the past three seasons, becoming one of the most revered centre forwards in all of European football. Mauricio Pochettino has built his team around the 25-year-old and so with Kane missing Spurs, at the most critical time of the season, would rob them of cutting edge.
Harry Kane could return for the UCL final after being out since April
(via @brfootball) pic.twitter.com/sxjgCy1iTl
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 27, 2019
Of course, it hasn’t quite panned out that way with Spurs securing a place in the Premier League’s top four (even if they staggered over the line) and more sensationally, making the final of the Champions League, seeing off City in the quarters and Ajax in the semis. Spurs have the biggest game of their recent history to look forward to and they got there without Kane.
He might still recover in time, though.“I feel good. There have been no problems so far," Kane explained on Monday when asked to evaluate his chances of being fit for the weekend. “I started to feel my way back with the team at the end of last week. This week now is to get the fitness as high as possible. Then it's down to the manager. The manager will assess it and decide whether I'm ready to go or not but, so far, I feel good and ready.”
Nobody can blame Kane for talking up his chances of making it. Saturday’s final would be by far the biggest game of his career to date. Any player, particularly one of his calibre and standing, would be devastated to miss out. But Pochettino must resist the urge to start Kane against Liverpool.
How many times has a star player been rushed back to fitness, whether it be for a Champions League final or a World Cup, only for that player to be well below their usual standard? See Mohamed Salah at last summer’s World Cup. Or David Beckham at Japan/South Korean 2002. Rarely do these tales end well.
I spy with my little eye, Harry Kane in training for Spurs pic.twitter.com/MvqJf84s7h
— Goal (@goal) May 27, 2019
What’s more, Spurs have found a way to play without Kane. Dele Alli, Lucas Moura and Heung-Min Son have all stepped up to fill the void and what’s more they have given Pochettino something of a Plan B, an approach that has made them a more fluid side in the final third of the pitch. This will be crucial against Liverpool, of all teams.
Play in front of Jurgen Klopp’s Reds and they will suffocate you with their high press. Get in behind them, though, and there is space and opportunity to be found. Kane isn’t the archetypal football frontman, he is more accomplished than that, but Alli, Moura and Son are all better at running the channels, of opening up pockets.
Spurs may have to embrace chaos, the kind they evoked in the quarter final second leg against Man City, to get the better of Liverpool and they stand the best chance of doing that with Kane on the bench, not in the starting lineup. This way Pochettino and his players can settle into the rhythm that carried them all the way to Madrid in the first place with the option of calling upon their top scorer.
The sight of Kane on the Spurs bench might be somewhat unnatural, but there can be no room for sentimentalism when Pochettino picks his team for Saturday’s final. From thinking that Spurs’ season might be over with Kane unavailable, now it might well be the case that their season depends on him being left out.
