Kane needs trophies to be remembered as a true great, says Johnson

Harry Kane must deliver titles for Bayern Munich or England if he is remembered as one of the world's greatest players, says former three lion defender Glen Johnson.

Kane enjoyed a brilliant debut campaign with Bayern in 2023-24, but they finished third in the Bundesliga and members a heartbreaking Champions League Semi-final exit by the final champions Real Madrid.

The former striker of Tottenham also failed to win in his first trophy at Euro 2024, where England finished second to Spain, but silverware does not seem to miss him this season.

Bayern is clear six points on the Bundesliga summit with eight more games and get a chance of 94.2% to get the title back by the OPTA Supercomputer, while they will come across in a heavyweight Champions League Quarte final next month.

No player in Europe's top five competitions can match the 76 goals of Kane in all competitions since the beginning of 2023-24, but Johnson knows that he should support his individual performance with team success.

“The best players win things. That would be the only thing,” Johnson said that statistics were performing when he was asked about Kane's inheritance.

“If he goes through his career that is as good as possible, scoring as well as possible, playing as many games as he does, it would be a shame if he won nothing.

“Because it is difficult to put him in the ranks of the boys who have won competitions and championships.

“It's hard to put him in that category if he didn't do that, but personally I want him to do it. He is a great boy.”

Kane also has 21 assists in all competitions for Bayern. With 97 targets in just 82 performances, he could become the fastest player (since 2008-09) to reach 100 for the Bavarian Giants.

But Johnson was the most free of Kane's predatory instincts for the goal.

Kane has greatly surpassed its 64.25 expected goals (XG) and has a conversion rate of 24.28% of 313 shots since he moved to Germany.

He is also on average a goal for the 34.7 touches. For comparison: Real Madrid's Kylian Mbappe scores every 59.3 touches, Barcelona's Robert Lewandowski every 42.4 touches and Liverpool Mohamed Salah every 67.3.

Kane has had 439 touches in the opposition box while he is in Bayern. He has scored 71 goals from the area (more than any other player in Europe's top five competitions since the beginning of 2023-24), which means that he has a goal every 6.2 touches in the area on average.

Johnson, whose last English cap came less than a year before Kane made his three lions debut in March 2015, is of the opinion that there are few strikers such as the 31-year-old.

“He is a real old-school striker, a goalkeeper and of course, if you put good or world class creative players around him, he will not stop scoring,” he said.

“He is a man who needs three chances to score two, so you always want the ball to fall on every goals.

“Those old -fashioned number nines are a dying breed, so absolutely, you have to set it up with the best goal scorers.”

Kane and his teammates from Bayern Munich will try to take another step in the direction of the Bundesliga crown when they organize St Pauli on Saturday.

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