![Prost International [PINT]](https://prostinternational.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/PINTtFontLogoRoboto1536x78.jpg)
The goalless draw against Watford highlighted Jose Mourinho’s necessity to address Tottenham’s lack of striking options.
Harry Kane’s long-term hamstring injury suffered in Spurs’ New Years Day fixture against Southampton has left the Lilywhites without a credible back-up in the striker position.
This isn’t a new issue. Harry Kane has only ever completed one 38-game Premier League season. Unfortunately for Tottenham fans, the conundrum has never been solved.
First it was Vincent Janssen. The Dutchman, who was fresh off the back of winning the Johan Cruyff Trophy in an impressive season at AZ Alkmaar, arrived to hopefully alleviate fears that Tottenham were overly-reliant on Kane.
That experiment failed spectacularly as Janssen was seemingly never in Mauricio Pochettino plans and was sold this summer to Mexican club Monterrey after just 19 games and two goals for the Lilywhites.
Jose Mourinho was asked whether the club needed a striker in the January transfer window after the draw at Vicarage Road:
“If it’s possible yes, if it’s not possible no. We all know, we all want the best for the team, the best for the club. That is obvious. But we have to do things when it is possible to do, it is the right thing to do. This is not the last match of Tottenham’s history. Next Wednesday we have another one, next season we have many more.
We have to be calm, be loyal to these boys, respecting everything they are trying to do. If it happens it happens, if it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen. But good feelings, not a good result but good feelings with the boys.”
With Janssen’s performances often disappointing, the striker role often fell to Heung-Min Son, who carried the burden well and often helped the side through difficult period without England’s captain.
In fact, there had been some suggestions amongst Spurs fans that Son played his best football in the absence of Kane, when the South Korean was able to be a focal point for the team.
Despite the obvious talents of the 27-year old, the burden of the lone striker position is a big task for a wide player to handle. Rotating with Lucas Moura in the draw at Watford, both players found it difficult to hold the ball up against a physical team like Nigel Pearson’s side.
Tottenham boss Mourinho commented on task his side faced physically and the difficulties of combating this approach without his injured star:
“I think we have to adapt to what we have and we did it very well. It’s not about, sometimes the profile of the players is also sometimes the way the team is used to competing. If you imagine our team today with Sissoko or Harry Kane you find immediately two physical players. One who holds the ball up front and another who is powerful in the midfield.”
One physical presence which left the club this summer was veteran striker Fernando Llorente.
Llorente, a World Cup winner in 2010 with Spain, was bought by Daniel Levy on deadline day in 2017 after an impressive first year in English football with Swansea City.
A no-nonsense target man, Spurs knew they were getting an experienced striker who would be happy playing second-fiddle to Harry Kane in the latter years of the Spaniard’s career.
The now 34-year-old was often effective when called upon during his two years in North London. Often disgruntling fans as his first touch escaped him or his mobility eluded him, Llorente delivered exactly ‘what it said on the tin’ as a tall striker who won headers in order to feed more influential attacking players.
Crucial in the run to the Champions League final, the Basque striker consistently provided important performances such as in the group stage against PSV Eindhoven when assisting a Harry Kane goal and dominating Ajax’s seemingly untouchable star defender Matthijs de Ligt in Tottenham’s dramatic semi-final in Amsterdam.
The striker’s contract was not extended in the summer as Llorente moved onto Italian club Napoli with him since linked with a move back to Tottenham in this window.
That move seems very unlikely as the decision for a Kane replacement may need to be a more long-term fix this time around, rather than another trial bound to fail or be a quick fix.
Mourinho has made it clear that he doesn’t feel it’s the time for 17-year-old Troy Parrott to step up and support the first-team so other options have to be explored.
AC Milan’s Krzysztof Piątek, Real Madrid’s Luka Jovic and Porto’s Ze Luis have all been touted as options and as Tottenham’s esteemed Portuguese coach expressed in his post-match press conference yesterday, a goalscorer wins you close matches.
“Again, this is a kind of game, I am not saying we would win, but it is the kind of game where you have a goalscorer, where you have a guy who smells goals, probably you win it. You feel the same when you see the Liverpool game, in the last 20 minutes how many times we just need a tap-in. That missing link is there. But we are doing our work.”
Whatever the solution that it decided upon between Levy, Mourinho and his squad before January 31st, it is vital that a plan is put in place to cover Kane’s absence until April.
With the club currently eight points adrift of the promise land of fourth place, a striker is vital if the Lilywhites are truly ambitious about seeing Champions League football being played in their new home at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next season.
