How Bayern Munich could line up with Harry Kane
- Harry Kane will not have a lot of competition to face for his position
- Service to come from the likes of Jamal Musiala, Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane
- Bayern Munich finally get their Robert Lewandowski replacement
By Euan Burns
Bayern Munich are going to be a serious force this season.
They are not a club that will react calmly to a campaign in which they didn't threaten in the Champions League and almost got pipped to the Bundesliga title by Borussia Dortmund.
That is why they stuck to their guns and managed to get a deal for Tottenham's Harry Kane over the line. The Bavarians will pay a fee of £86.4m (€100m) for the English striker, who has never played club football outside of his homeland before.
Bayern were already one of the bookies' favourites to win the 2023/24 Champions League and their chances will only improve now that they have got one of the best strikers in the world through the door.
The next job, although it may not be a hard one, is to decide where Kane will play in the Bayern starting XI once he is settled into his new surroundings.
Harry Kane as a lone striker
We all know that Kane is an out-and-out striker and he will certainly be playing through the middle for Bayern once he arrives. The exciting thing from Kane's perspective is that he could get better service at Bayern than in recent years.
He has played with some truly wonderful players both for Tottenham and England, but he could be the head of a 4-2-3-1 formation in which Alphonso Davies, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala, Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry are all looking to get the ball to him in dangerous situations.
This is a ready-made role for Kane who can get into the box and receive crosses from wide, he can play slightly deeper and link up with Gnabry, Sane and Musiala in a more narrow way when needed, and he can even swap positions occasionally with Musiala to keep defences on their toes.
There are instances where Thomas Tuchel may choose to use a 4-3-3 rather than a 4-2-3-1, perhaps in the latter stages of the Champions League should Bayern get there. That would not really change things too much for Kane, who would remain as the primary striker.
There is no serious competition for Kane in this Bayern Munich squad. There are a number of players who have the ability to play as the furthest forward attacker, but Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Mathys Tel are the only actual strikers in the squad beyond Kane. It would take a really awful patch of form for Kane to find himself getting fully dropped from this Bayern team.
Potential lineups:
Sane - Musiala - Gnabry - Kane
Sane - Muller - Gnabry - Kane
Sane - Kane - Coman
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Harry Kane with a strike partner
There have been few occasions in Kane's career where he's needed to play with another natural centre forward.
At Tottenham, he had the pleasure of playing with Roberto Soldado, Vincent Jansson and Fernando Llorente as a front two. For as fruitful as his partnership with Son Heung-min was, they rarely played as a direct duo.
Just as well, Bayern don't particularly have many players to pair with Kane. Muller would probably be the most obvious choice, with his Dele Alli-like movement sure to move any onlooking Tottenham fans.
Choupo-Moting is at least an accomplished striker and Tel has a lot of potential, but it's hard to imagine Tuchel using such a system with this personnel.
Potential lineups:
Kane - Muller
Kane - Choupo-Moting
Kane - Tel
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On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth, Graeme Bailey and Sean Walsh to discuss the ever-changing Moises Caicedo saga, Harry Kane's move to Bayern Munich and more!
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