Bayern Munich chief speaks out on Harry Kane goal-scoring troubles

Bayern Munich director of sport Max Eberl admits Harry Kane ‘hasn’t scored from open play for a long time’ but says he is not worried about the England captain.

The 31-year-old is hardly having a disastrous season, or even a bad one, with 22 goals in 24 appearances across all competitions.

However, he has not been in the greatest form in recent games and his last goal from open play came way back on 22 November in a hat-trick against Augsburg.

Kane has scored twice since then, but both goals came from the penalty spot, while a minor hamstring issue also sidelined him at the start of December, hampering his goal tally for the campaign.

After Bayern suffered a surprise 3-0 defeat to Feyenoord in the Champions League on Wednesday night, in which Kane played the full match, Eberl dismissed the striker’s lack of recent goals as the most minor of concerns.

‘Harry is the least of my worries,’ he said. ‘When you have a young player, you might worry more, but Harry Kane has had so many highs and also some lows. So if anyone can cope and deal with it, it’s Harry Kane. He hasn’t scored from open play for a long time, but he also was injured.

‘Of course, we need his goals. He knows that and is probably the one who is most critical of himself. But I don’t think it’s causing a mental problem for Harry.’

Bayern are top of the Bundesliga, but defeat to the Dutch side continued an underwhelming campaign from Vincent Kompany’s side so far in the Champions League.

The German giants have won just four of their seven matches, losing the other three and finishing in the top eight is now out of their hands.

Their final group stage game is at home to Slovan Bratislava, so a win looks extremely likely, but they will need other results to go their way to climb into the top eight.

Kompany admitted Feyenoord deserved the three points on Wednesday, ruing missed chances from the likes of Kane and Jamal Musiala.

‘I have to be honest, Feyenoord deserved their win. They fought hard and ran,’ Kompany told a press conference.

‘We had many chances. I felt we could have scored one, two or more goals. Feyenoord used their moments well.’