Harry Kane labelled as worst Premier League striker of opening weekend – A defence

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Why criticism of the Tottenham star’s performance against Manchester United is unjust.

Harry Kane may not have enjoyed a dream start to the 2015/16 season as his Tottenham side lost 1-0 to Manchester United, but was he really that bad?

Goal USA have named Kane as the Premier League’s worst striker from the opening weekend of the season, a selection which to us appears quite harsh.

Even the justification focused on why it was not all Kane’s fault, blaming his teammates.

The report states of Kane: “Subdued for the most part as Spurs failed to create an effective link between the attacking midfield trio and their top scorer of last season.”

Kane would be the first to admit the game was not a memorable one from an offensive perspective, but it was not without it’s bright moments.

The striker completed eight passes in the final third, a figure which seems low, but was actually higher than several big name forwards on day one.

The highest number came from Wayne Rooney, with 14 successful final third passes, but as the table above shows, Kane’s contribution was solid – twice that of Olivier Giroud.

Kane also was so nearly celebrating early on. It was his through ball which gave Christian Eriksen a glorious early chance which he could not capitalise on.

The England international was keen to drop back and battle for his team, but the problem was when he did this there was nobody offering a threat up top.

Spurs need to offer Kane support to enable him to thrive and not feel he has to do as much by himself – as he deals with sky high expectations this season, coming off the back of a terrific breakthrough campaign.