Is Harry Kane a World Class Striker?

Harry Kane has managed to prove his consistency over the course of three seasons and is certainly not the one-season wonder that many thought he was. At the age of 23, it is exciting to speculate how far the English striker can go in the game. He is set to break the 20-goal mark for the third successive season and there have been few Premier League strikers in recent times that can claim such a record. The Tottenham favourite is leading the chase for the golden boot beating the likes of Sergio Aguero, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Alexis Sanchez at the time of writing. It is about time we started considering Kane as a potential world class talent.

Since the beginning of the 2014/15 season, the 23-year-old has averaged a goal every 120.8 minutes in the league. This is a remarkable strike rate and competes with the very best strikers in the world, such as Antoine Griezmann (136.96 minutes), Robert Lewandowski (106.8 minutes) and Gonzalo Higuain (106.8 minutes). Considering that Kane plays in a more competitive league and in a side that has never won a Premier League title, his achievements deserve even more credit.

This season has seen a drastic improvement in Kane’s strike rate, as he is currently finding the net every 99.9 minutes. Although this has been helped by his good form since the turn of the year, it underlines how he is consistently furthering his development with every passing season. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t manage to surpass his best season total of 25 goals given his recent clinical edge in the penalty area.

The most impressive part of Kane’s game is that he can score every sort of goal. He is a good finisher in the opposition area, but he can also produce a goal out of nothing, as he showed against Everton at the weekend. The Tottenham number ten received the ball 25 yards out and fired a powerful drive past Joel Robles to open the scoring. It takes a special player to even consider such an attempt, let alone score from one. The game was scrappy, to begin with, but Kane found a way to give his side an early lead and this is what the very best players do.

In addition to his goals this season, the Englishman is likely to produce more assists than he has done during the last two seasons combined. He has contributed four assists to date and it would be a surprise if he doesn’t add to this before the end of the season. The change in formation to a 3-4-2-1 has meant that both Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen are playing in central areas. This has aided Kane and is one of the major reasons for the striker’s incredible goal-scoring start to 2017. However, it should also lead to more assists for the 23-year-old as he will now have two players making runs in behind him.

It is clear that Kane is making strides in the correct direction as he attempts to continue his development and become a world class striker. Although it is too soon to consider him as one, he certainly has the potential. It was disappointing that he was injured during Tottenham’s Champions League group, as this is the stage that he must prove himself on next, as well as improving his impact for England. He should get the opportunity to do the former next season as Spurs look set to finish in the top four for the second successive season. If he maintains his strike rate in the Premier League over the next 12 months and has a bigger impact in the Champions League next season, then it could be time to consider him an elite striker.