Wayne Rooney may have challenged him to break the 50-goal barrier for England but Harry Kane has still to score a Premier League goal for Tottenham Hotspur this season. The striker is sure, however, that he will soon rediscover his touch.
Although Tottenham managed their first win of the season at Sunderland on Sunday, Kane was largely marked out of the 1-0 victory by the perhaps unlikely duo of John O’Shea and Younès Kaboul.
It was not the way he had hoped to follow up his third goal in four games for England, but the 22-year-old centre-forward remains confident his five-game run without a goal will not continue for much longer.
“No I wouldn’t call it a drought,” Kane said. “Everyone else probably will but I know the goals will come. Scoring for England against Switzerland was a great confidence booster and I’m not worried at all. I’ve just got to keep doing what I have been and I know the goals will follow. Any striker wants to be scoring but that’s football, sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m not fussed at all.”
He has, though, been grateful for some advice from a former England centre-forward. “Alan Shearer told me that it’s a long season ahead and I have to stay calm, that chances will come my way,” Kane added. “He said that, as a striker, you’re not going to score every game, you have to be ready for three, four, five games without scoring. When that happens you’ve just got to keep doing the right things for the team and working hard.”
Rooney has urged Kane to break his England record – 50 goals and likely to rise – but the Tottenham striker’s reaction to that challenge proved typically down to earth. “That’s a long way off but it’s nice for Wayne to give us the incentive to go on and beat it,” he said. “And playing for England’s definitely given me more confidence.”
He hopes it will help propel Spurs towards a top-four finish after what he believes has been a deceptively slow start. “We’ve been playing well and have been unlucky,” Kane said. “We’re playing well enough to be up there in the top four. We’ve got a lot of young players who are exciting to watch and we can push on now.”
Mauricio Pochettino’s cause can only be aided by Andros Townsend’s return to fitness. The winger came off the bench in the second half at Sunderland to give Patrick van Aanholt, the home left-back, quite a few frights.
Townsend has his sights set on joining Kane in Roy Hodgson’s Euro 2016 squad for France. “The Euros is a huge incentive for me,” said the player who missed out on the 2014 World Cup because of an ankle-ligament injury.
“But my club form will dictate whether or not I’m in the squad. If I’m playing well for Spurs then I know the England manager will include me in the squad. We have a good relationship. Every time he’s called on me I’ve done a good job. I don’t see any reason for him to lose faith in me. I just need to get back to my best level of performance and get back in the starting XI at Spurs.”
