Premier League: Record-breaking Harry Kane can still raise his game to another level in 2018

The trouble for defenders is that Harry Kane is unlikely to find poor form soon. Unless it’s August, of course, when he remarkably under-performs. It’s his well-rounded game that must really annoy the opposition. There’s no one facet to Kane’s play that one could identify as his defining trait. Except scoring goals, maybe.

He’s good in the air, he runs fast, possesses a ferocious shot, has a calm head over the shoulders… There is no apparent weakness to his game. Last year at the Euros, perhaps, one found a chink in his armour. Fatigue was a real concern then. But as Kane noted on Wednesday, it may not be an issue anymore.

“This year I would say physically I have improved: recovery from games, getting ready, we have such a busy schedule. Just making sure I’m ready for each game, eating right, recovering right with ice baths. I feel really good. I feel sharp and at my best.”

How do you stop Harry Kane then? Opposition sides are still looking for an answer. His latest achievement is pretty special: Alan Shearer’s record for most Premier League goals in a calendar year has been bested and how! Shearer scored 36 goals in 42 appearances, Kane has 39 in 36.

But it is probably his other accomplishment that stands out. After seven years, the top goalscorer in a calendar year, within Europe’s top five leagues, is neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo. Rather, Kane takes the prize after scoring 56 times in 52 matches for Tottenham Hotspur and England. With his second of the three goals against Southampton on Boxing Day, the English striker went past Messi’s 54 goals in 63 matches this year.

It was Kane’s eighth hat-trick of 2017. Numbers have been an integral part of his rise, ever since he broke the walls down about three years ago. The records are never too far away from his game and, it would seem, his mind. “It was hard not to think about it going into the game being level (with Shearer)… To get that goal early on and get that record was a great feeling and I could enjoy the rest of the game.”

Enjoy, he did. Kane’s play is a combination of what strikers are expected to do in football today and what they have always done well. His tranquil disposition and ability to sneak past defenders have been prized traits forever. But he’s also a more tactically aware striker; Kane’s not just a poacher. When the goals do not come — and those moments are rare — the 24-year-old is adept at contributing to other phases of play. To wit, Kane’s ability to win the ball is quite underrated.

And he’s just 24.

With the World Cup on the horizon, Kane will enter the tournament in the prime of his career. England’s biennial angst with major tournaments may continue but Kane, and some of his Tottenham Hotspur teammates, could shake a few things up. Not since Shearer’s days has the English national side really taken international football by storm. Euro ’96 was a delightful competition for England, albeit a missed opportunity, with the former Newcastle United striker leading the line.

It also heralded a new era in English football culture, coming out of the dark shadows of hooliganism and entering a period of relative prosperity in the early years of New Labour. The dream, as it turned out, was eventually a false dawn. But could a bunch of savvy, urbane English footballers bring a sea change in Russia next year, especially as the country learns to accommodate its ambitions in the post-Brexit scenario? Kane may provide the answer.

But what of his own ambitions? The dramatic rise experienced by Kane is inseparably linked with the growing reputation of Spurs. It is difficult to see his story outside of the club which took him in their ranks as an eleven-year-old. However, when Kane broke through to the first team, it was rather odd. He began Mauricio Pochettino’s inaugural campaign in 2014 firmly behind Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor. By the end of it, Kane was the second-highest goal scorer in the league with 21 strikes.

Ever since, Spurs and their favourite goal-getter have been on an upward curve. There has been much said about the wage ceiling at the North London club and whether Kane will be better off somewhere else. Pochettino’s inability to guide his team towards any silverware yet means that there is still much left for the striker to achieve.

Indeed, a bid in the excess of 100 million pounds next summer will test Spurs’ resolve. There is a financial argument for Kane to move away but it is unlikely that he could go to any other big club within England or abroad and demand a similar stature. Pochettino’s coaching and the camaraderie at Spurs have been vital to his growth. Kane has been loved and nurtured.

In terms of his development as a player, it is unlikely that the striker will perform exponentially better at a different club. In fact, there does lie the risk of a dip in form. With 18 goals already to his name this season, Kane is once again leading the Premier League charts. He may well add a third successive Golden Boot to his shining mantelpiece.

Spurs could show how well they value him by making an exception for Kane’s wages. There, however, remains little doubt that the economics of football eventually catches up. It could well happen that Kane and Spurs part ways, even if neither party is particularly keen to do so.

Pochettino is certainly aware that he will find it difficult to replace his ace striker, if he leaves. Kane is increasingly making it tough for everyone to praise him appropriately, so frequent are his mind-boggling contributions. There is the odd strike when he leaves you gasping — sample his goal against Huddersfield this September, if you like — but it is really the mundane contributions of his play that keep him rolling on. Kane, as they often call him, is a goal machine.

For now, there’s no upgrade that he needs. Kane is firmly among the best strikers in the world. Yet, the absence of silverware rankles. 2018, with the World Cup in Russia, can take his juggernaut to a different territory.