Pundit believes Kane is ‘frustrating’ his teammates and blasts ‘negative’ Conte approach
Micah Richards has detailed where Tottenham went wrong in the north London derby and where Harry Kane can still improve.
Spurs have been guilty of starting matches slowly all season and Arsenal found themselves ahead after just 14 minutes thanks to a Hugo Lloris own goal.
Arsenal capitalised on their first-half momentum and led 2-0 going into the break. While Spurs did improve after half-time, the damage had already been done in the first 45 minutes.
Antonio Conte’s side now find themselves fifth in the league, having only won two of their last five matches. They are five points adrift from the top four, having played a game more than Man United.
Richards thinks that the approach from Spurs was wrong to begin with and he has questioned Kane for dropping so deep during the game.
The pundit told the Monday Night Club: “In terms of the way they are set up, it’s a little bit too negative. Kane is again coming too deep, which must be frustrating for all of his teammates.
“When he’s not having the best of games, he’s going to be involved which then leaves nobody up-front which is even harder to do when you have so many players back.”
Kane had a total of 36 touches against Arsenal, which was fewer than every outfield player who started for the Gunners.
The England striker tried to get Spurs moving up the pitch but often found himself surrounded by Arsenal shirts in the middle.
Kane himself has had a terrific season up until this point with 15 league goals in 19 appearances. His blank against local rivals Arsenal will be one to forget about though.
The Spurs manager told Sky Sports: “It was difficult to come back after we conceded two goals. When we conceded the first, we had the possibility to level the game with Sonny and the keeper made a fantastic save.
“Then they scored the second goal. It could have killed everybody, but not my players as in the second half we tried with a big effort to score and create problems for Arsenal.
“The keeper made fantastic saves today. Arsenal is a difficult opponent now, like Man City. Both teams are going to contend for the Premier League title.
“We played against a strong team but at the same time I’ve not got great disappointment for the commitment of my players. They showed great will and desire to try and come back. Sometimes in the past we did, but today their ‘keeper was really good.
“Arsenal showed to be a really good team. It wasn’t easy for them to play against us in this atmosphere but they have a great balance and suffer in the right moments. They showed great resilience in the second half.”
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