I actually love Lucas Moura. When people are unkind to him it upsets me. He gives everything, every game. I wish we could bottle his enthusiam and inject it into certain other squad members. I think maybe he was taken off to protect him for Sunday, as were the others who were substituted. I didn't quite get the substitutions at the time, but on reflection I see what he was doing.
On the other hand, Harry Kane was just a twat and a useless waste of space for most of the game.
My disagree is for the Kane thing. He wasn't good tonight, though he did essentially score the winning goal. But a twat? Nah. He was actually really up for it. Go rewatch him make a flat-out 30 yard sprint to try to stop a lost cause ball going out into touch in the middle of the pitch. He made quite a few hard and unsexy runs to marginally benefit the team tonight.
As far as I can tell, the reality is that he's just in a rough patch that happened to come at a terrible time for him and his public relations. You think intentionally playing like a cunt is going to get him the transfer he wants? You don't think his natural hypercompetitive streak and renowned professionalism means he wants to win every game regardless? The idea that he's playing badly on purpose is just silly to me, especially when I watch him closely every game and still see him putting effort in -- just not to the usual effect. But, of course, because of the timing, everyone picks the harsher, juicier, conspiratorial explanation that he's on strike or whatever, rather than the more mundane and obvious explanation that he's simply in a rut. Which, after so many years at such a high level, is not unreasonable at all, even if the timing is incredibly unfortunate. (I wouldn't be surprised if the Euro final broke him far more than he's publicly let on, and that the two things are connected.)
I predicted months before all of this happened that regardless of what Spurs fans said at the time, they'd end up hating Kane if he stayed, just by picking up on every single thing he does and interpreting it through the most negative lens possible. Of course, I didn't see him struggling quite so badly this season, but I did also predict that it would be very hard for him, no matter how professional he is and how much he wants to play well for Spurs. So much of motivation is subconscious: you can only will yourself to want something to a certain point. The analogy I used was of those of us who don't like our jobs and would rather do something else: no matter what benefits they offer you and no matter how much you try to gee yourself up, you'll never be able to perform at the same level as you would if you actually wanted to be there. Real motivation has to arise organically. You can fake it - and that's the most people can really ask of Kane - but, as I've hopefully illustrated, that only works to a degree. And personally, from what I've seen of his actions on the pitch, body language, facial expressions etc., I think Kane is attempting to do that --
and that he genuinely still cares what happens at Spurs.
He can absolutely be blamed for failing - and he will be, probably more so than he deserves - but I don't believe that it's through a conscious lack of trying.
