Pat Nevin has told the Football Daily Podcast that he was ‘really surprised’ at how ‘strong’ Martin Keown criticised Tottenham’s, Harry Kane.
The former Arsenal defender slammed Kane for his ‘dangerous’ challenge [Independent] on Adam Lallana during Tottenham’s 2-1 win at Brighton last Sunday.
Whilst Keown was seemingly seething at Kane’s challenge, he was the one who won the penalty because referee Graham Scott felt the Brighton man fouled the striker.
It resulted in a big debate as to whether Kane knew what he was doing when he was backing into Lallana, as former Chelsea winger Nevin shared his take on the matter.
“I was watching Martin [Keown] talk about it and I was really surprised at how strong he was,” said Nevin. “So, I watched it again because I didn’t see that first time. I saw it from a forwards position.
“And a forwards position is simple. I’ll go wherever I want to go onto the pitch. If you want to clatter into me then that’s your problem because you are not looking. That’s the forward positions and that’s how we look at it.
“We see ‘right, it’s not a foul by me for going into position and if you bang into me then that’s your problem and you should look where you are going’.
“From the defender’s position, it’s ‘I am just watching the ball’. And that’s alright. I thought it was a really interesting thing because I hadn’t considered the defender’s positions. Both are right from the other’s point of view.”
There was a lot of criticism that came Kane’s way following that incident with Lallana because many felt that the midfielder was the one who was fouled.
It resulted in Jose Mourinho being pretty bullish in his press conference because he felt that Kane was being portrayed in the wrong way.
Either way, it needs to be remembered that those in the VAR room agreed with the on-field decision.
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