The post-Harry Kane era at Tottenham got underway on Sunday, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Spurs failed to win their first game without Kane.
Indeed, a 2-2 draw was the result at the weekend, but that doesn’t tell the whole story of the match.
Spurs looked incredibly bright in their first league game under Ange Postecoglou, and they can count themselves rather unlucky that they didn’t come away with all three points.
Without Kane in the squad, some of Spurs’ other players were brilliant, and according to Nedum Onuoha, speaking on the BBC Radio Five Live Football Daily Podcast, James
Maddison was actually better for Kane not being in the side.
Maddison better without Kane
Onuoha gave his verdict on the £45m midfielder.
“Think of it this way, would Maddison be able to play the same way if he had someone with Kane’s tendencies dropping deeper and stuff like that? All of a sudden that might
disappear. I think he was better for them,” Onuoha said.
Hard to say
James Maddison had a fantastic game on Sunday, but it’s hard to say whether or not he’d have been better with or without Kane.
On one hand, we can understand the argument that Kane could have the tendency to get in Maddison’s way when he drops deeper, but, at the same time, Kane was a very intelligent
player who knew where to be and when.
Maddison and Kane did look bright together in pre-season, and we can’t help but think that they would have been amazing if they did end up playing together.
Maddison was fantastic at the weekend, but we can’t agree that he was better due to Kane’s absence.