Forget just goals - Why Kane should smash the Bundesliga assist record
Assist in the fourth minute, goal in the 74th. Harry Kane’s Bundesliga career got off to the perfect start as Bayern Munich beat Werder Bremen 4-0 in Friday’s traditional curtain-raiser.
Never has the nation of England been so intrigued by a German league game. The past lure of talents like Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho at Borussia Dortmund is one thing, but England captain, Harry Kane, making his first start for the dominant force of Bayern Munich, winner of 11 consecutive league titles? It still felt scarcely believable up until kick off.
That Kane got one of each in terms of goal contributions is immensely fitting, as he’s always seen himself as equal parts goalscorer and playmaker. He wore the No. 10 shirt at Tottenham Hotspur in part because of that, proud to be at the heart of attacking moves - rather than simply get on the end of them.
Both the goal and the assist were absolute classics: the former a powerful strike towards the near post after initially feinting to open up his hips and curl it, the latter a threaded pass in behind for the onrushing Leroy Sane, who bore down on goal and converted. We’ve seen both of those moves time after time in the past, with Son Heung-Min in the role of Sane.
What was different, though, was Kane’s sparing on-the-ball involvement between the two decisive actions.
That’s not to say he was anonymous or not impactful; no, that would be disingenuous, as while Kane won’t have found standing on the last line and occupying the centre-backs much fun, it’s a vital tactical mechanism that gives shape to an attack and creates room for talented attacking midfielders to strut their stuff - and boy do Bayern have some talented attacking midfielders!
But put simply: it was very weird to watch a team with Kane in it weave their way up the pitch without having to use him much, as that’s the polar opposite scenario to Tottenham’s last decade or so. There have been times in years past where if Kane doesn’t get the ball, Spurs don’t reach the final third - let alone take any shots.
Bayern had no such reliance on him. It’s possible they’ll look to him more and more as relationships develop, but the reality is that Bayern are far superior to the majority of Bundesliga teams and do not need to build using Kane as a bounceboard. They have the best midfielders, full-backs and ball-playing centre-backs in the division, all of whom can combine to push die Rekordmeister up and into attacking territory.
That resulted in Kane totalling just 33 touches against Werder Bremen - despite Bayern hogging 72.4% of possession. For context, at Spurs, Kane registered three seasons in which he averaged between 41-45 touches per game, and that was with team possession hovering around the 52% mark. He’s used to being the star of the show; now, he’s one of several.
Friday night, then, will have felt a bit weird for Kane. It was perhaps more akin to an England game than a club game for him, given the periods of time he endured without touching the ball. Meanwhile, Alphonso Davies was raging up the left flank, Jamal Musiala was flitting left and right between the lines, and Joshua Kimmich was dictating play from deep.
What’s important, though, is that Kane made his moments count. He was eager to pick out the runs of his wingers, happy to take on shots from various ranges (6 in total) and he relished combining intricately with the midfielders - several times feeding balls into the box for Musiala, Sane and Kingsley Coman to latch onto and shoot - when the chance arose.
It’s that last element that’s most intriguing. Anyone and everyone has a goal prediction for Kane in the Bundesliga - and no one has gone below 20 - but what about assists? In a league where the vast majority of teams press and play high defensive lines, the sheer number of chances Kane is set to create for the absurdly quick Coman and Sane in behind could break records.
Unlike most strikers, he’d take equal pride in clocking 20 assists as he would 20 goals. Teammate Thomas Meller, who holds the single-season Bundesliga record for assists with 21, might rightly be feeling a little nervous!
