Ian Wright thinks Tottenham should rest Harry Kane for next weekend’s North London derby.
Pundit and former Arsenal striker Ian Wright has told BT Sport that he thinks Tottenham should rest striker Harry Kane ahead of the North London derby.
Tottenham were in Premier League action on Saturday afternoon as they hosted Leicester City at White Hart Lane, but were held to a 1-1 draw as Ahmed Musa’s equaliser cancelled out a penalty from Spurs striker Vincent Janssen.
That’s now just three points taken from the last three Premier League games, and Spurs have come unstuck since the international break, particularly in front of goal.
Ian Wright during the Pro-Am
Heung-min Son’s purple patch appears to have ended, whilst that was Janssen’s first Premier League goal or Spurs since his summer move from AZ Alkmaar – and he’s yet to score from open play in any competition so far this season.
Ultimately, what many predicted would happen has come true; Tottenham struggle in front of goal when star striker Harry Kane is out of the side.
The England international has been out for around six weeks now having suffered an ankle injury against Sunderland in September, and it’s clear that Tottenham miss their talismanic goalscorer.
Tottenham’s Harry Kane
There’s no shame in that; any team would miss a player with 59 goals in two seasons. Now though, Kane is on his way back, and is believed to be 50/50 to play in Tottenham’s crucial Champions League clash with Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday.
However, Spurs face North London rivals Arsenal next weekend, and pundit Ian Wright has urged Tottenham to rest Kane for that fixture rather than rush him back against Leverkusen.
Wright told BT Sport that he thinks Tottenham need to save Kane for Sunday’s clash, and added that he thinks Spurs would be in a much better position if Kane had been fit in recent weeks, as he he brings the goalscoring touch that few Spurs can match.
BT Sport’s Ian Wright
“I’d rest him because when you look at Spurs, and the way they’ve struggled in the last few weeks in respect of scoring goals, not winning games…I think that they should have won [against Leicester] especially as they are trying to make sure that they are up there competing, and they are up there competing.”
“It was a mistake today, you have to say, from [Victor] Wanyama. You have to say that if Harry Kane was there you would have felt that they probably would have won a couple of those games and the confidence would have been a lot higher in the team at the moment.”
“He [Pochettino] seemed a bit despondent. I don’t think you need to be despondent because Spurs are not losing the games. I do believe that when you look at the rest of their team it does simply come down to someone coming in like Harry Kane coming back and scoring,” he added.
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