Ever since Harry Kane burst onto the scene, he’s been labelled as a ‘traditional’ English centre-forward. A target man.
You know the type. Strong, aggressive, puts himself about a bit, gets on the end of crosses and decent hold up play.
All the ingredients, in fact, one needs to thrive in what is the most physically demanding football league in the world – the Premier League.
However, such a ‘one dimensional’ description does the Tottenham Hotspur man no real favours.
He may not be the quickest, but he’s no slouch either. Sergio Ramos was shown a clean pair of heels on Monday night in Spain by way of example.
The intelligence and inter-play from Kane in England’s first three goals too, was – to use football parlance – top drawer.
Finding space deep in his own half before a pin-point pass to Marcus Rashford, helped in the lead up to Raheem Sterling’s first goal for the Three Lions in an age.
The way he took Jordan Pickford’s long goal kick down and kept up to three Spanish defenders at arms-length before finding the Manchester United man again, was simply sublime.
His second assist of the night came as a result of him driving at a shell-shocked home defence, getting in-behind and steering a header directly into Sterling’s path for England’s third.
Despite going another 90 minutes at international level without a goal himself, which will be a concern, Kane gave a captain’s performance at the Benito Villamarín.
In all three instances, without his contribution in the lead up, England don’t score. It’s that simple.
There’s a cogent argument that he’s starting to become more of an all-rounder who is at his most happy as a true No.9, but isn’t afraid to utilise other areas of his skill-set when required.
He has earned the absolute trust of both Gareth Southgate and Mauricio Pochettino, and is arguably the first name on the team sheet for both club and country.
His team-mates look to him to lead by example, and that doesn’t just mean by putting himself about a bit up front either.
It’s time the media and the England supporting public lauded Harry Kane for being, well, Harry Kane. To compare him to others that play in nothing like the same way as he, albeit in the same position, is counter-productive.
He is the epitome of the modern-day striker.
A man that can do it all.
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