Is the Spurs front line too young? Harry Kane, Clinton Njié and Son Heung-min will lead the Tottenham line this season, all three being relatively inexperienced in the Premier League.
The average age of Kane, Clinton and Son is just 22.3 years. This is incredibly young, especially if you compare it, for example, to Manchester City’s two senior strikers Wilfried Bony (26) and Sergio Agüero (27). This is why Spurs fans felt disappointed that Daniel Levy didn’t bring in an older striker before the closing transfer window. Emmanuel Adebayor wasn’t registered for the Premier League or the Europa League, which means Spurs must put all their faith in the young strikers. Can they cut it?
Harry Kane proved himself capable with his 30 goals in all competitions last season. However, he hasn’t managed to find the back of the net this season. This could be second season syndrome: Premier League clubs wising up to the young England international. But a player does not just score 30 goals by luck or bad defending. Kane has all the necessary attributes to make it in the Premier League and once he starts scoring, he will undoubtedly challenge his previously set record.
Critically, Kane has support this year. Pochettino is now able to experiment with his squad after adding Clinton and Son during the summer. Both players are able to play on the wing as well as up front, which means Kane should have a lot more service and even competition this season. Let’s face it, Kane’s starting spot wasn’t under threat from Roberto Soldado and Adebayor last season. These two additions should help to push Kane harder and aid his progress.
All three attackers bring a different element to the game. But, all three could potentially feature together, with Kane in the middle and Son and Clinton on the wings. This seems quite a tasty combination, especially with Christian Eriksen pulling the strings behind them. More importantly, the close marking on Kane would allow the two wingers to have more space and exploit slow full-backs with their lightning pace. Sure, any team can mark Kane out of the game, but it’s impossible to keep tabs on the two wingers too. This very fact means that this young trio could be a dangerous one.
No matter how dangerous these three seem on paper, a nagging thought still comes to the forefront of every Spurs fan’s mind. Is the Spurs front line too young? Should Spurs have invested in a big name over the summer? But, it’s hard to imagine who that big name would be. Risk another £30m on a potential flop or invest in youth and hope that it pays off? Both have risks, but arguably youth is the way to go, financially and also morally.
It will be very interesting to see how Spurs’ season pans out with an already young squad, but also a very young front line too. A huge factor in Spurs’ success will be the strikers, and largely the responsibility for goals will fall on Kane. Most importantly, Clinton and Son will help to ease that pressure on Kane and share the workload. Maybe another 30 goals for Kane is possible, maybe it is not, but what if those 30 goals were shared between the three strikers? Would fans consider the Spurs front line too young then?
