da dobrowin： It was a surprisingly weak display from Harry Kane at Anfield, and yet it was one which proved his importance nonetheless.
da luck： Having missed a penalty which looked like it could have been a winner, Liverpool went up the other end and punished him – looking to have scored the clincher themselves. But that’s only to misunderstand the character Tottenham Hotspur have in their team and, probably, the weakness of Liverpool’s defence, even with Virgil van Dijk taking his place within it.
Harry Kane, having missed a couple of chances and generally looked out of the game for large swathes of it, still managed five shots – though two of those were penalties – and one equalising goal.
That last-minute penalty to take his own Premier League goals tally up to 100 was a pressure strike for all sorts of reasons, but the mental strength alone needed to step up and bury a pressure spot kick after missing one just minutes earlier is worthy of serious respect.
But a dispassionate analysis of Kane’s game has to take into account more than just that penalty. Over the entire game, he amassed fewer touches than any other player to start the game, including goalkeepers, and with just six completed passes, he was more of a liability than a threat for the majority of the time.
Spurs managed to come away with a draw at Anfield in a game they may well have won if Kane had been on better form throughout, and although a potential slump in performances is inevitable for a player who has been at such a high level for so long, this would be the absolute worst time for Tottenham to have to struggle without him.
With Arsenal coming up this weekend and Juventus in the Champions League on the horizon, Spurs will have to hope that Kane’s pressure penalty was the moment to jolt their star striker back into form again.
Either way, it shows that even an off-form Kane could still decide the biggest game in the league last weekend.