Pochettino launches passionate defence of striker Harry Kane

Mauricio Pochettino has defended Tottenham striker Harry Kane ahead of his side’s Champions League opener against Inter Milan.

Kane has come under criticism since the start of the season. Despite scoring in the month of August for the first time in his Premier League career, some have suggested the England captain is still tired from the World Cup.

However, in his pre-match press conference before the Inter game on Tuesday, Pochettino dismissed such criticism, describing Kane as an “easy target”.

He said: “Harry is an easy target because it’s easy when he’s not scoring to start to talk about him. But Harry after four years at the club, there are a lot of things to say thank you to him.

“Of course he needs to improve, but the team needs to improve. But it’s easy to blame Harry. Because he’s up front, when the team loses and doesn’t score goals, it’s easy.

“But at the same time, it’s an easy judgement, it’s easy to analyse, to talk and always it’s about – maybe I am so repetitive and boring – the perception. Perception and reality are the opposites at our club.

“Maybe at a different club they have some good balance, but for us the perception with the reality are too far away.

“Every single fan in the last four years, every single person, every single team-mate of Harry needs to say thank you because when you see in the last four years what he has provided for the team, I think it’s too difficult to complain today because he is not scoring goals and because the team lost the last game or the game before.”

Tottenham are sixth in the table after their loss to Liverpool on Saturday.

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