WHZ Tactics: West Ham skipper Declan Rice set for key battle with Harry Kane
West Ham host Tottenham tomorrow in what promises to be a feisty encounter at the London Stadium.
Both sides have European football aspirations but are on different runs as of late. The Hammers are flying high in fifth spot, knowing a win can open up a nine-point gap between the sides.
Spurs have lost four of their last five Premier League matches. They are, however, in the League Cup final and have progressed to the knock-out phases of the Europa League.
Our visitors won 4-1 in the week against Austrian side Wolfsgerger, in Budapest. Crucially, leading goalscorer Harry Kane sat out of the match. It’s reported that he asked to be left out so he was fresh for this weekend.
Declan Rice will have his work cut out for him tomorrow. In the 3-3 draw in October, Kane started the match in exhilarating form. The England skipper created the first goal for Son, before scoring twice himself within 16 minutes.
He embarrassed Rice for his first goal, slipping the ball through his legs before firing in from 20 yards out. Kane was unlucky not to get a hattrick, hitting the post in the second half with the score still at 3-0.
We all know what happened in the last ten minutes, but we want to avoid that this time. Kane has adapted his game this season, dropping deeper to become more of a playmaker than to spearhead the attack, at times.
His 13 goals and 11 assists in the league show how dominant he’s been in his new role. Dropping deeper will see him try to pull strings in the territory of our captain, Rice, who himself is having a brilliant season.
Rice, in his own right, is an excellent defender. He will have to control the area in front of his backline, a job he usually does so well. We’ve shown an example of this below. Rice sees that Ludstram is about to gain possession, and is on the move before his opponent’s first touch.
He instantly puts a challenge in before Ludstram has a chance to slip the through ball into McGoldrick. This position, dropping just short of the backline, is where Kane has seen so much success this season. He usually has Son running in behind, as McGoldrick is here.
He crucially wins possession back for the Hammers, and Cresswell proceeds to drive up the pitch. We go 2-0 up not long after this, it could have easily been 1-1 had Ludstram made the through ball.
According to WyScout, Kane’s goal involvements make him the second most effective attacking player in Europe’s top five leagues. He has registered 74 shots on goal this season, 3.39 per 90 minutes, and won 42.7% of duels overall.
Rice on the other hand has won 55% of his defensive duels. He averages 5 interceptions and 7.22 recoveries per 90 match. He’s going to need to be on this kind of form to stop Kane, who himself will be looking to drive Spurs back up the table.
The winner of their battle will go a long way in determining the winning side on Sunday.
In other West Ham news, here is our predicted XI to take on Tottenham.