Harry Kane has urged his Tottenham teammates to 'step up' when the pressure is on after seeing their Premier League title challenge slip away in recent weeks.
The north London side were hot on the heels of the league's frontrunners, but after suffering back-to-back defeats to Burnley and Chelsea, and then a draw in the north London derby against Arsenal, now find themselves ten points behind the top spot.
After another year in which a promising domestic campaign has come unstuck in the business end of the season, Kane admitted that his side need to overcome their mental block and begin to perform when the stakes are at their highest.
He said (as quoted by the Belfast Telegraph): "The thing for us now, kind of like this week, when the pressure is on and we need to step up, we need to find a way to get it done.
"We haven’t done that in recent years, we haven’t done that this week and that will be the difference.
"We came out fighting in the second half and got ourselves into the game. We put the pressure on. Thankfully Hugo saved the penalty at the end" - @HKane #TOTARS pic.twitter.com/CDyMnInje9
— Premier League (@premierleague) 2 March 2019
"That is the turning point that we need to try and achieve."
Despite hearing Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino claim last week that the side's mentality in big games could mean it will be another five years before they hold up a trophy, Kane revealed his hope that it would be much sooner than that.
He added: "I don’t think it’s far away but I think what the gaffer was saying was it’s not a guarantee that if you improve you are still going to win things.
"Every team is improving, every team is strengthening, every team is getting better year-by-year so it’s important for us that we don’t fall behind that.
Good fight in the second half but not the result we wanted. Focus on getting the job done on Tuesday now. #COYS pic.twitter.com/1tY60jjLO2
— Harry Kane (@HKane) 2 March 2019
"We have got to a stage in the last four or five years where we have maybe done more than we expected as a club but it means that we have to do even more to reach that stage.
“Whether it’s five years or not I can’t say, but I hope it’s sooner than that."
Source : 90min