Harry Kane picked up right where he left off last season for Bayern Munich despite the club having their first season without a trophy in over a decade. The England skipper has already tallied an impressive 17 goals and eight assists from a total of 14 matches played. He currently leads the Bundesliga in the scoring race, with 11 of his 17 goals having come in the league, and he is also joint second in the league for assists along with SC Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo, both of whom have recorded five assists thus far.
Right now, Kane is on a hot streak, having scored or assisted in Bayern’s last three matches across all competitions. He scored in the 5-0 win over VfL Bochum, provided an assist in the 4-0 DFB-Pokal win at Mainz, and scored a brace and provided an assist for Kingsley Coman in the 3-0 win over Union Berlin. Six goal involvements from the last three matches and last 12 goals scored for Bayern is par for the course for Kane, but he did have a bit of a cold streak earlier on in the season.
At one point earlier in the season, Kane had gone three matches without a goal that stretched from the 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen to the 1-0 loss to Aston Villa in the Champions League, though in that time he did provide an assist in the 3-3 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt. For England, he also did not score in either of their pair of UEFA Nations League matches during the October international break against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Finland.
For a player of Kane’s stature, five competitive matches without a goal are labeled as a “slump,” but Bayern board member for sport Max Eberl does not exactly see it that way. In fact, Eberl feels there was never a let off period at all for the England skipper. “We haven’t seen him have a slump. Harry Kane is judged very much by his goals, but he already provided an assist against Frankfurt, and against Union he provided the assist for Coman. Harry is a player who is integrated into our game in a different way and still scores goals, so he’s worth his weight in gold,” he explained to Ransport (via @iMiaSanMia).
Last season, Kane finished with a total of 44 goals and 12 assists across all competitions, and he is right on pace to hit a similar mark this season, so long as he stays healthy. Bayern will also have at least one more Pokal match, too, as last season they were shockingly eliminated in the second round of the competition by FC Saarbrücken and Kane had not featured in either of the two Pokal matches last season. Regardless of his own numbers, he will still be eager to win silverware, but his contributions obviously play a massive part in those efforts.
Looking for more thoughts and analysis on Bayern Munich’s upcoming Champions League match with Benfica, along with a reaction to Bayern Munich drawing Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal? What about our takes on the latest news regarding Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sané, and Alphonso Davies — and what might happen if Bayern actually finds a way to ink them all? Great, then check out our Bavarian Podcast Works — Flagship Show on Patreon, Spotify, or below: