Thursday 21 February 2019 07:15, UK
Harry Kane is back in Spurs training - but has the team's form over the last month shown they have finally learned to cope without him?
There were understandably worried looks when Kane hobbled off at the end of Tottenham's 1-0 defeat to Manchester United on January 13, and days later it was confirmed the ankle injury he suffered would keep him out for at least six weeks.
Mauricio Pochettino has endured a tough time when trying to bolster his strikeforce in previous years, with Vincent Janssen an expensive flop and Fernando Llorente failing to convince.
Without their talisman and nine points off league leaders Liverpool, it was just the thing Spurs' title hopes did not need. Heung-Min Son had done a good job in previous years during Kane's absences but he too was heading off with the Asian Cup days away, leaving Llorente - who had not scored a league goal in almost a year - to lead the line.
Kane could return when Tottenham visit Burnley on Saturday but since his injury, they have suffered a limp exit from the FA Cup at Crystal Palace but also come within a penalty shootout of the Carabao Cup final and are only five points off the top of the Premier League. The evidence is that they are finally learning to get by without their top goalscorer.
Son has seized a difficult moment and turned it into an opportunity. So has Llorente, to a lesser extent. Both have upped their game in Kane's absence, and Llorente has scored a quarter of his Tottenham goal tally in the past month.
The Spaniard's time in the spotlight could not have got off to a worse start when he marked his first league start in more than a year with an own goal at Fulham, in a game where he passed up a number of chances you would have expected Kane to score.
It would have been easy for Pochettino to use that as an excuse to try something like turning Lucas Moura into a makeshift striker and relegate Llorente back to the wilderness.
But to his credit he stuck with the Spaniard, and the striker repaid him with a crucial goal against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup semi-final, before scoring the equaliser as they came from behind to beat Watford at Wembley, and also netting the third goal in their brilliant 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund last week.
The real hero since Kane's injury has been Son, though. He announced his comeback from the Asian Cup after South Korea's elimination with the winner in that late triumph over Watford, before his solitary goal was enough to see off Newcastle in their next game, and after a dour first half his excellent finish two minutes into the second set them on their way against Dortmund.
Son has often stepped up to the plate when Kane has been missing. Four of his 14 goals in 2016/17 came in Kane's month-long absence towards the end of that season. He has taken the bull by the horns this time around, scoring four in as many games to show he should not just be an adequate back-up to the England man, but a competitor too.
Statistics never tell the full story but the facts still raise a few questions when it comes to Tottenham - in all competitions since the start of 2016/17, the club has a win percentage nearly eight per cent higher without Kane than with him.
It's not that Kane has sat out easy games. Mauricio Pochettino has usually avoided the temptation to leave him out and allow him to recuperate when he is available.
Tottenham do not score significantly more goals whether Kane is in the team or out of it, but they do concede fewer. So whatever is changing is affected at the other end of the pitch. The England captain often drops deep to help when out of possession, so it's unlikely their defence is aided by his absence.
If he went by win percentage alone, Pochettino might be tempted to leave Kane on the bench when he returns to match fitness.
But their star striker's true value is obvious when you look at the importance of his goals. Kane's goals won Tottenham 22 points last season - more than a quarter of their overall tally. For the same period, Son scored almost half of the goals Kane did, but they were worth only six points. It was a similar story in 2016/17.
Tottenham have done well without their talisman, and they can be confident they are better equipped to cope without him than in previous years, but Pochettino will be very glad to welcome him back in time for a likely Champions League quarter-final double header, as well as an unlikely Premier League title charge.
