Harry Kane: Tottenham star on how to make it as a top striker
Thursday 29 August 2019 12:56, UK
As one of the Premier League's best goalscorers, Harry Kane gives his insight into what makes a top striker and how he honed his craft.
The Tottenham forward is a two-time Premier League Golden Boot winner and, last summer, became the first Englishman since Gary Lineker in 1986 to win the World Cup Golden Boot with his six goals in Russia.
It's safe to say that Kane knows what it takes to succeed as a world-class striker, and ahead of Tottenham's meeting with Newcastle, he gave Patrick Davison his thoughts on how to become a success.
"It's putting in the hard work, first and foremost, and a lot of practice on the training ground," he said. "You also need that instinct from a young age - maybe you're born with it.
"I think hard work will always override instinct. You see it throughout the years, players who may not technically be as good as others, but at a younger age they work harder, train harder and they get to a higher level because of that.
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"But I think there is an element, especially with top goalscorers, of knowing where the ball is going to fall or being in the right place at the right time. It's just through habit from doing it when you were a kid scoring goals and you take that with you, maybe without you even knowing. If you add the hard work with that, you become a really good player.
"Some movements you do on purpose, for example, when you make a cross. Sometimes you do want to move in front to get in behind, even with through balls to come short or go deep, but that's stuff you can train on.
"It's more the stuff like rebounds, corners and ricochets and you find the spot in the box. From the outside, it looks like the box is really crowded but, within yourself, you feel like you've got loads of time and loads of space. It's drifting into those little areas that don't look like much but you can score a lot of goals from it.
"It's a sign of a good striker when you can be in the box and everything slows down instead of speeds up. You see it at different levels with different players - they might panic in front of goal, rush a finish or rush a touch but if you can freeze a situation so you know where the goalkeeper is, where the defenders are and with the pace it's going at, you know where the bodies are going to be, you can use that to your advantage."
'I always enjoyed scoring'
Kane believes he has always had a natural ability to score goals, even when playing in the park as a kid growing up in Chingford, and started developing his technique more seriously as a teenager.
"I've always enjoyed scoring goals," he added. "I used to go to the park with friends or family or on my own and that was the feeling that made me happiest. That's the kind of stuff that was built into me at a young age and it's a real passion that I love to do. I felt like I was good at it at a young age.
"I came to Spurs when I was 11 years old and it was an okay couple of years, then I had a growth spurt and I started to get a bit taller and physically stronger and I did a lot of work with Bradley Allen, who is still here.
"There was a lot of finishing, and we'd stay behind after training and work on it so that was the first time I really worked on my craft. He wanted to make me understand that in a game, any chance can come and you've got to be ready for it.
"From 14 onwards, I stepped it up in terms of my practice and my training. I've always wanted to do more finishing, I love training anyway, but finishing is what I enjoy most. In that moment, whatever it was, I would feel free and I could enjoy it.
"Before every game, you think 'what kind of chance am I going to get, is it going to be in the box, outside it, am I going to get a cross?', but obviously you can't control it and you've got to be ready for any situation. Some games you get five or 10 chances and other games, you get one or two - that's just the way it goes.
"I just try to prepare myself as well as possible for every chance. You've got to be prepared to shoot with your left or your right, or your head or a chip and that's what makes a good striker."
