Harry Kane was the leading scorer in the World Cup and now he is trying to repeat the trick my finding the net most times of all the players competing in the Premier League. He scored six goals in six matches in Russia but given an injury free season he will play in 38 league matches. Averaging a goal a game may be beyond Kane and the other contenders but 25 successful strikes should be enough to win the honour.
The World Cup is a shop window and clubs take notice of outstanding displays. Kane seems settled at Tottenham and in actual fact his World Cup was not as good as it seemed on paper. He scored three penalties and did not score in the last three matches. You can’t dispute the numbers and nobody scored more goals than Kane in the World Cup. He has form in the Premier League and is the worthy favourite to top the scoring charts. However, he may not play for Tottenham for the whole of the season.
Jose Mourinho is not happy at Manchester United and he might not be the manager much longer. The project has not worked and United failed to deliver in the two biggest matches of last season. They were hopeless against Sevilla in the Champions League at Old Trafford and hardly had a shot when losing to Chelsea in the FA Cup. The fans are not stupid so Mourinho’s United must hit the ground running at the start of the season. Rumblings from the manager do not augur well.
If Mourinho and United part company there will be a job vacancy. The hierarchy should move heaven and earth to recruit Mauricio Pochettino. He has the character and experience to do a job for many years to come. As part of the deal United should ask for Kane to also travel north. Spurs can also throw in Dele Alli in a multi-million pound deal. If it happens Kane could be playing for United for the bulk of the season but its debateable whether he would score more goals.
Kane was the leading marksman in the Premier League in 2015-16 and 2016-17, scoring 25 and 29 goals. He actually scored 30 times last season which is usually enough to be the top scorer but Mo Salah scored 32 times for Liverpool. In five of the last eight seasons the leading scorer did not score 30 goals or more. In 2010-11 20 strikes was enough but over the last four seasons the lowest tally has been Kane’s 25. You can assume the winning tally will be between 25 and 30 goals.
Bizarrely Kane scored more goals from the penalty spot in the World Cup than in the Premier League last season. VAR and referees punishing man-handling in the box led to lots of penalties in the World Cup. It will be interesting to see if refs award more penalties in the Premier League but VAR is not being used during the 2018-19 season. The penalty count may go up and that could have a knock-on effect on the numbers of goals scored by the top strikers and Kane will be in the fore.
The current Tottenham striker has notched 21-25-29-30 times over the past four Premier League seasons. He achieved those numbers during injury hit seasons and he is prone to getting hurt. Salah scored just 15 times for Roma in his last season at the club so his tally for Liverpool was a huge jump. Kane has the proven consistency and can win another Golden Boot but he might play for Tottenham and Manchester United from August 2018 to the following May.
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