West Ham United captain Mark Noble has leapt to Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane’s defence after recent criticism of the England captain.
Kane has found himself the subject of much discussion about his fitness and poor form of late, but Noble feels that the 6’1″ Spurs star [Source: Transfermarkt] should be appreciated not ridiculed.
“He’s the England captain, he’s just led our nation to a World Cup semi-final and given us the most enjoyment we’ve had in a long time watching our national team – and he won the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer,” he wrote in the London Evening Standard.
“We need to remember he’s one of our country’s best players – if not the best player – and he will come back soon. I just think, as a nation, we should cherish him and the rest of our English players in what is a smaller and smaller pool.”
OPINION
Noble’s words make a lot of sense. The criticism of Kane recently has been astounding, quite frankly. The man plays every available minute for Tottenham in all competitions, and did the same for England at the World Cup in Russia this summer – winning the Golden Boot along the way. A dip in form was inevitable at some point, and its not like he’s been terrible. He scored a terrific header in an excellent win at Manchester United that everybody seems to have forgotten about, and now he’s being chastised and labelled as tired. He may well be tired, why wouldn’t he be, but he doesn’t deserve the extent of the criticism he has been experiencing of late. Mauricio Pochettino probably needs to figure out a way to use him better, or not use him better, but Kane should be receiving support and appreciation not criticism. He’s still doing a good job for the team and the goals will come, so people need to get off his back.