With each day that passes, Harry Kane nears full fitness from the longest layoff of his career. He was thrown back into the action in the North London derby and marked his return with a goal from the penalty spot. To the dismay of many Spurs fans, he was also called up for international duty for England. This caused a lot of worries that he may be played too much before he was ready, but he was given a little cameo in the 3-0 victory against Scotland and has been allowed to rejoin Tottenham training to continue his fitness work.
It is no secret that Tottenham have missed their star striker. The midfield found it harder to create chances, and Tottenham have struggled to score goals.
Two players that will be relishing the return of Kane are Heung-Min Son and Erik Lamela.
Son has been the shining light for Tottenham in Kane’s absence. Although the goals have dried up slightly of late, he has scored 5 in 12 appearances for Spurs and has even played as the central striker in Kane’s absence, due to the lack of goals from Vincent Janssen.
But the return of Kane (who is rated at €110.8m by the CIES Football Observatory) will mean that Son can concentrate on playing in his favoured left forward position. It is from here that he scored those fantastic goals against Stoke and Middlesbrough, cutting in off the left-hand side and bending the ball past the keeper.
He is also the only player in the Tottenham forward line capable of running directly at pace and beating his opponent. This will be a big weapon for Spurs with the return of Kane. The England striker has fantastic movement in the box and he will relish somebody who delivers fantastic balls in from out wide.
Crucially for the South Korean player, he will have some of the pressure taken off his shoulders as the most likely goalscorer in the Tottenham team. He has been paid more attention by the opposition without Kane in the side, and he has struggled to deal with this at times. Just the presence of Kane will mean more space for Son to operate in.
Another player who will no doubt relish the return of the England international is Erik Lamela.
It hasn’t been the best start for the Argentinian to his campaign, and he has found himself in and out of the side. This could be due to the fact he hasn’t really looked like scoring and with Janssen as the lone forward, there has been an increased need for the midfielders to add to the goals.
The biggest strength to Lamelas game is his ability to drift into space and play balls in behind the defenders for his striker to run onto. The return of Kane will mean that once again he has a player capable of producing these runs and making Lamela’s through balls matter.
However, he does face a fight to get back into the side with the return of Kane. Currently, the first choice front 4 are likely to be Kane, Alli, Son and one of Eriksen or Lamela.
Eriksen has been quite poor this season also, so both him and Lamela have a fight on their hands to make it into that final starting spot on the right-hand side.