HARRY Kane’s £104million move from Tottenham to Bayern Munich has come with an added bonus for England boss Gareth Southgate.
Kane, 30, has been in remarkable form for the German champions as he seeks to end his long trophy drought.
He has scored 37 goals in 35 games in all competitions this season since moving to Bavaria.
His haul includes a remarkable 31 goals in 26 Bundesliga games, along with nine assists.
But his exploits are not just benefitting Bayern Munich.
Southgate stands to reap the rewards of Kane’s move to Germany, as the England captain has improved in the past seven months.
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We have highlighted three ways in which Kane’s game has improved in Munich.
And the new improved Harry Kane could be the key man for England in Germany in the summer, at Euro 2024.
More traditional positioning
Kane has never been a traditional target striker and he has always liked to drop back into the midfield to help link the play for his team.
There was a sense, however, that during his last season in England with Spurs he was coming too far deep and leaving his side without a focal point of attack.
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Kane is a creative forward who is also an incredible finisher.
And at Bayern he is spending more time playing in a position that we would consider to be more normal for centre forwards.
This is partly because of the fact that Bayern are, usually, dominant domestically in a way that Spurs never really were.
This means that they tend to play against teams who sit in a deeper defensive block and try to deny Bayern any space to attack into the final third.
As such, we have seen Kane develop his ability to push the opposition defenders back through his positioning.
In a recent Bundesliga game against Mainz, Kane scored three goals and had two assists, and had 10 touches in the opposition penalty area.
Compare that to a recent game for England against lowly Malta last November, where he only touched the ball three times in the box – one of which was a finish for a goal.
England in major tournaments tend to struggle to break teams down in the early stages as they sit deeper and look to restrict the space in the final third.
With Kane starting to develop his game more, even at 30 years old, to be able to play effectively against this kind of team will be hugely helpful for England in Germany.
Kane’s skill in the box will help as the Three Lions look to make the most of their dominance in possession.
Interestingly, we have also seen Kane start to trust teammates more.
This means that the English international striker no longer thinks that he has to constantly be around the ball in the final third in order to link the play and help his team to create or break through the opposition.
Now, we have started to see Kane move away from the ball more often.
This in turn stretches the opposition defence and creates opportunities to attack an isolated opponent in the defensive line.
The move to Bayern Munich seems to have allowed Kane to take a step away from having to be the captain and key attacking player, as he was at Spurs.
The England legend has started to develop his game into becoming a better all-round striker.
Giving his team the platform to attack
With Kane starting to position himself more as a traditional centre forward he has also developed his ability to play with his back to goal.
He as found himself developing his skills like linking the attack and bringing others into the game.
This is a result of the fact that, as discussed above, we are now seeing Kane position himself more centrally and higher up the pitch for longer periods of time.
When Kane was still at Spurs he would receive the ball with his back to goal.
But typically these were in transition as Spurs were counter attacking.
During Kane’s time at White Hart Lane, Tottenham were never a side that could be described as being possession-dominant domestically.
This meant that he would receive and look to twist and turn to outplay the defender or prolong the attack.
With Kane now playing at Bayern he is in a side that are far more dominant in terms of possession.
And we see Kane in positions where he can take in the ball and then immediately look to feed it off to link with teammates who are making runs to support the attack.
This, again, will be important for England this summer in the Euros as they will have a more dominant possession-based style than a lot of their opponents.
It is vital in these kinds of tactical systems to have strikers who are comfortable playing high and pushing the opposition back, and who can receive and link with teammates in one or two touches.
The fact that Kane will now initially position himself higher and against the opposition central defenders before dropping deep towards the ball will also disrupt the opposition by pulling defenders out of position.
As Kane is becoming expert at staying high and then dropping deep at the right moments so opposition defenders will be forced out of position as they come out to match the run.
This should, in turn, create space in the defensive line that Kane’s teammates can exploit.
This should mean that the likes of Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham will have space to attack in the summer.
As a striker who acts as the focal point, the move to Germany appears to have led to Kane developing his game understanding and tactical intelligence.
Intelligent pressure
With Kane having moved from the Premier League to the Bundesliga he has left a league where the schedule and constant quality of opposition is intense – to move to a league where the style of play is intense.
German football has long been characterised as being intense both in terms of the play on the ball in possession, with an emphasis on forward passes, and intensity out of possession with pressing and counter-pressing against the ball.
While Kane was at Spurs there were times that they would act as a high-pressing side but there were also long periods where he was not expected to press aggressively out of possession.
At Bayern, however, there is an expectation that he presses and works hard immediately against the opposition in order to disrupt and slow down the pace of their build-up.
This coming summer should see England and their coach Gareth Southgate look to be more aggressive out of possession in terms of looking to be dominant in winning the ball back as quickly as possible as the opposition attack.
With Kane now becoming more conditioned to working and pressing, even when isolated as the only player who is looking to add pressure and regain possession we will see England become much more effective against the ball in the summer.
There is little doubt that the move from Kane to a league where pressing and counter-pressing is the norm has developed his ability and willingness to work against the ball for his team.
This should see him effectively lead the press for England.
Conclusion
Harry Kane took a risk last summer in leaving an extremely comfortable situation where he was a leader in the changing room to move to a new league and a new culture where he had to prove himself again.
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The move has been a success both in terms of the way that he has played and in terms of the development of key parts of his game.
This coming summer should see England reap the benefits of this move as they have a more well-rounded captain and striker leading the team.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
