Tony Cascarino expresses ‘surprise’ at Harry Kane starting for Tottenham Hotspur during Burnley defeat

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Tottenham Hotspur suffered a defeat against Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

talkSPORT pundit Tony Cascarino has claimed that Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to play Harry Kane during Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-1 defeat to Burnley proves how ‘desperate’ he was to win the game.

Cascarino also added that he was ‘surprised’ that Kane started and claimed that his teammate Fernando Llorente knows that the England man ‘will always’ be in front of him in the pecking order.

During Kane’s absence, Llorente impressed supporters, scoring a number of crucial goals, including against Dortmund in the Champions League.

Speaking to the Weekend Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (24/02/2019 at 7:25 am), Cascarino shared his thoughts on Kane starting at Turf Moor.

“Surprised as in, yes I think with the games coming this week and they are going to be big games, I thought he may have held Harry back,” Cascarino told talkSPORT. “Harry scored in the game which you could justify Pochettino’s argument.

“It shows you how desperate he was to win the game. He [Poch] knew Burnley was a massive game in their calendar. Llorente would know that Harry Kane will always stay in front of him. Whatever Llorente would do, it wasn’t going to be enough to keep him out.”

Despite Spurs losing the game, Pochettino’s decision to start his star man after a long injury lay-off was perhaps justified because he found the back of the net in the second-half.

After Chris Wood had headed the home team ahead, Kane, following a throw from Danny Rose, ran through on goal on the left-hand side, kept his balance, showed his strength and placed the ball brilliantly into the bottom right-hand corner.

But after levelling the scores, Pochettino’s side conceded once against seven minutes from time when Ashley Barnes slotted home from close-range.

The London club have a number of big matches coming up, starting with an away clash at Chelsea on Wednesday before they host rivals Arsenal next Saturday.