Following Harry Kane’s crucial penalty miss in the FIFA World Cup quarter-final against France the discussion of whether the Tottenham Hotspur forward struggles to perform on big occasions has resurfaced.

While he plays for a national and club team that have both not experienced success for a fairly long time many people expect more from a player they see as one of the best strikers in the world.

Failing to turn up in the crucial fixtures

Kane’s consistency can not be questioned as he averages at least 20 Premier League goals a season, but the issues lie with his lack of influence on big games from open play. He did score one penalty against France but he missed the other, and a big opportunity was missed in the process with France now being 2.10 favorites in football bets to retain their World Cup trophy.

The player who knocked England out was Olivier Giroud, who is now one of the leading players in the World Cup Golden Boot odds at 7.00. The Frenchman provides an interesting comparison to Kane, at the age of 36 he does not score at an incredible rate but he has a tendency to score on big occasions. Perhaps some players have the ability to propel themselves to a higher level when the pressure is on.

While he may now be England’s joint-record goalscorer and be the top goalscorer at the 2018 World Cup, these feats are certainly somewhat of a false image in regard to his ability to perform on the biggest stage.

At the club level, his failure to impact the biggest games where trophies were on the line can be epitomized by the 2019 UEFA Champions League final. Spurs reached the final while Kane was injured, when he returned against Liverpool in Madrid he was anonymous and they went on to lose the biggest game in their history.

In the 2018 World Cup, all of his goals came across three fixtures, Tunisia, World Cup debutants Panama and a single goal in the round of sixteen against Colombia. When England desperately needed goals from their forward in the semi-final against Croatia, Kane did not provide them, and he even missed a huge opportunity to put England two ahead. The chance in question is one that Kane would score many times throughout a season, and his failure to turn up on this occasion and in many other big games is certainly not a question of quality.

Dealing with pressure

The footballing world knows how good Kane is, but perhaps at the biggest stages, the pressure gets to the Tottenham star. Being the holder of the armband also applies the pressure of being expected to lead by example. When the team is struggling the rest of the team looks to their captain to solve their issues, and perhaps the armband even places a burden on Kane that distracts him from his goalscoring instincts.

By Euro 2024 England may have a change in managerial duties and maybe even a change of the captain’s armband is needed so that Kane can focus fully on himself going into the next international tournament. Football fans know that Kane can score hat-tricks against bottom-half Premier League opposition, it is now time for him to turn up against some genuine footballing heavyweights at the club and international level to cement his status as a legendary player rather than just a great.