Tottenham may look at a position change for Harry Kane
Tottenham may employ a radical solution to compensate for the loss of Christian Eriksen. Spurs may move Harry Kane into the Dane’s spot.
A funny thing happened for Harry Kane while playing for England this week. His switch from playing as a classic No. 9 to more of recessed position sparked his country to an easy win over Bulgaria. It’s very possible his manager at Tottenham will consider deploying him the same way in the near future.
Kane isn’t going to ever play as Eriksen does as a classic No. 10, but it’s possible the prolific striker may split the difference and start to work as a false 9 for Spurs. That might reduce his goal total slightly, but it could do a lot to knit Tottenham’s attacking corps together as a cohesive unit.
The 26-year-old’s excellent play against Bulgaria earned him a perfect 10 player rating from Whoscored.com. Yes, Kane did notch a goal and three assists to power that rating, but that doesn’t paint an accurate picture of everything he did in the match.
Close examination of his performance showed that he made a conscious effort to drop deep and possess the ball in the midfield. That allowed Raheem Sterling to have a field day running against isolated Bulgarian defenders. Tottenham don’t have Sterling at their disposal, but they do have a pair of natural wide men who can reprise that sort of role.
Imagine, if you will, a front three with Kane flanked by Heung-Min Son and Lucas Moura. Kane would need to play in a deeper role than he is accustomed to, but he could use that strategy to pull centre backs up the pitch with him. Any central defender that takes a step in the wrong direction could be in big trouble trying to catch up with the speed of either Son or Lucas.
A setup like that could allow Kane to use his size and clever ability to make late runs into the box to serve as a secondary break options for Spurs. Even if a defender were to be successful in cutting off a winger’s wide run, they’d suddenly face a run from Kane into the box. It’s easy to envision a lot of goals coming from that kind of secondary break.
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Pochettino would be taking a big risk to move Kane out of his normal No. 9 position, but it could pay off big for Tottenham. The club certainly need something to jump-start their attack at the moment. Let us know in the comments below if you think Kane should be deployed as a false 9.