Harry Kane acknowledged a shift in how he watches English football, blaming the current emphasis on dead-ball situations for sapping some of the Premier League\u2019s entertainment value. The Bayern Munich striker, who is also the England captain, suggested the trend has affected his engagement with the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching the Premier League is probably a little less enjoyable than what it has been in recent years, to be honest, but that\u2019s kind of the evolution of football,\u201d the England captain sighed. Kane pointed to one clear beneficiary of the trend. \u201cSometimes it comes in like this and that\u2019s the case this year. Arsenal have capitalised on that and are a really strong set-plays team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Gunners have produced 10 set-piece Premier League goals this season, and while the share of non-penalty goals from set plays has edged from 21% to 23%, Arsenal\u2019s specific strength from dead balls is indisputable. Bayern must prepare accordingly ahead of their Champions League meeting.<\/p>\n
Kane downplayed any exceptional change to Bayern\u2019s routine. \u201cWe\u2019ve done our normal preparation that we do in every game,\u201d he shrugged. \u201cObviously, we looked at what they do well and their threats and how we can try and stop that.\u201d He added a simple blueprint: \u201cThe best way of stopping that is not giving set plays away, which we\u2019re hoping to try and do as little as possible if we can control the game in the way that we want to control the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensive resilience will be vital. Bayern have conceded just 30 shots from set pieces this Bundesliga season, the second fewest in the division, but those opportunities have produced six dead-ball goals, the third-worst return.<\/p>\n
Kane underlined the need for courage and duels: \u201cObviously, they\u2019re going to have some, but it\u2019s just a matter of showing some personality, winning the duels.\u201d His record against Arsenal, including a Champions League penalty strike on his first trip to the Emirates with Bayern in April 2024, keeps him prominent in their planning.<\/p>\n
Asked about the danger he poses, Mikel Arteta said, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t use that word,\u201d the Spanish boss sniped. \u201cI admire what he has done and what he continues to do, and the level of consistency.\u201d Arteta added: \u201cBe prepared for what is coming and then focus on ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the pitch, Jurri\u00ebn Timber reflected the defenders\u2019 view: \u201cWhen you face an opposition with Harry Kane as the striker, he is a topic and you discuss him as defenders, because he is one of the dangerous players,\u201d the Dutch defender admitted.<\/p>\n
Current basic numbers for Kane read: Games 21, Goals 15, Penalties 8, Assists 2, Wins 8, Draws 6, Losses 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kane says set-piece emphasis has made the Premier League less enjoyable; Arsenal are dangerous. soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1062],"tags":[1162,1047,1278],"class_list":["post-4710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-bayern-munich","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league","tag-set-pieces"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}