How does Kane’s departure affect Spurs in FPL?

It feels strange to have a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) season without Harry Kane, now of Bayern Munich.

His last nine top-flight campaigns have brought 210 goals, with the striker netting at least 20 on six occasions. He signed off in style: 2022/23 was his best-ever FPL season, with 263 points being just nine short of Erling Haaland (£14.0m).

Inevitably, Fantasy managers are wondering how Spurs will now line up without their all-time top scorer.

Questions are being asked about Ange Postecoglou’s preferred playing style, as well as whether the north London side will dip into the transfer market to replace Kane.

Let’s see what we know so far and predict how they will evolve.

Ange-ball is already bringing goals

Our Scout Report on new boss Postecoglou discussed his time at Celtic, where five domestic trophies arrived in two seasons. A total of 114 league goals came in the second campaign, averaged at exactly three per match.

In the same year, Tottenham dropped to their lowest position since 2008/09, despite Kane’s efforts. He became the first player to surpass 25 goals for a Premier League team that finished down in eighth, settling on 30.

“We want to entertain our fans and we want to win – these are the objectives which I always set myself and which I now begin work on.” – Ange Postecoglou

Yet some numbers suggest they’re a great fit for ‘Ange-ball’, as it’s affectionately called. No team was involved in more than Spurs’ combined 133 goals in 2022/23, with fifth-most at the right end (70) and no 0-0 draws recorded.

We’re already seeing that very little adaptation is needed for the Australian’s methods. He likes lots of short passes and, when the ball is lost, using a high-tempo press to quickly regain it. For better or worse, he encourages bold football regardless of the opponent.

In pre-season, the three main first-team friendlies accumulated 100 shots and dominant possession proportions of 71%, 80% and 67%.

Clues from Gameweek 1

This front-foot approach continued during a 2-2 draw at Brentford on the opening weekend.

Who will take Spurs’ penalties now Kane has gone?

Kane was among the most ‘nailed’ penalty-takers in the division but there’s a void to be filled now that he’s gone.

It was, believe it or not, Dele Alli who sat in for Kane when the Lilywhites were last missing their top-scoring talisman, with Son’s most recent penalty coming in April 2021.

The South Korea international has a surprisingly patchy record from 12 yards:

Does Richarlison take Kane’s place?

FPL managers who went in early on Richarlison may start feeling nervous should he also blank versus Manchester United on Saturday. After all, €100m has just arrived and recent rumours have linked the club with Romelu Lukaku (£7.0m), Mehdi Taremi, Gift Orban – and Folarin Balogun (£4.5m)!

Chairman Daniel Levy will remember 2013’s big Gareth Bale departure, when Spurs “sold Elvis but bought The Beatles” in the words of former player Garth Crooks. Or at least attempted to. In reality, the additions of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela, Paulinho, Christian Eriksen (£6.0m), Nacer Chadli and Etienne Capoue had mixed results, to put it kindly.

So will Postecoglou place his faith in Richarlison, especially given the positive comments on him?

“I’ve said before that I really like Richy. He’s someone who has got all of the attributes I look for in a striker in that he’s got the strong work ethic, he’s always in the right areas and he’s presenting himself and making a presence of himself in the right areas for the way we play.” – Ange Postecoglou

It’s safe to say the 26-year-old’s first Spurs season was underwhelming. The £60m signing from Everton ended with only one league goal but, in fairness, he was restricted to 12 starts and five outings that lasted longer than 70 minutes. He was also mostly deployed on the right or left wing, rather than up top.

But he bagged a second-half hat-trick in the pre-season friendly against Lion City Sailors and Postecoglou appreciated his work rate at Brentford.

“I thought he [Richarlison] worked hard today but I felt we didn’t use him enough. The key for us is to keep supporting him because he’s working awfully hard for the team in a defensive sense and when we get in that front third I thought we didn’t look enough for him today.

“I have got a lot of time for him. He’s a striker and he’s got a lot of great attributes and he will always work hard for the team and that’s a good starting point for me.” – Ange Postecoglou

However, Postecoglou’s comments in the pre-Gameweek 1 press conference should serve as a warning.

“Oh, I don’t think there is a like-for-like replacement for Harry mate but yeah in terms of a striker again we’ve been planning for this, fair to say, for a while. It doesn’t take too much investigative work to realise that this was going to happen so we’ve been sort of planning for it to happen anyway so a lot of our business up to now is with that in mind. This doesn’t change things dramatically from my perspective anyway in terms of what we’re trying to build.

“There is still movement in the squad, absolutely. We’ve still got a fairly big squad and we need to move out some players. I think some players will seek an opportunity elsewhere and there are still three or so weeks to go in the transfer window so I think there will still be movement but not because Harry has gone, that’s always been in the plan.” – Ange Postecoglou

FPL prospects of Spurs attackers

The Lilywhites’ encouraging fixture run begins from Gameweek 3 but Richarlison could still be deemed a risky pick, knowing there’ll still be one more week of the transfer window.

Nevertheless, we spoke to supporters Sam Bonfield (FPL Family) and Baker (Above Average FPL) for our in-depth Spurs preview and they both believe he’ll be the club’s main forward. Now reclassified as an FPL midfielder, an in-form Richarlison could quickly become a must-have.

“Maddison’s set-piece responsibility make him attractive and Richarlison has also massively caught my eye in pre-season. He is the perfect fit for Ange-ball and, when he has played, has looked explosive and in all the right places. Richarlison looks set to be a great pick.” – Sam Bonfield (FPL Family)

“He [Richarlison] genuinely could break the game in a similar way to Marcus Rashford last season. He has looked so lively in the number nine position and, if Kane goes, then I would expect him to take over rather than buy a replacement or shift Son inside.” – Baker (Above Average FPL)

Elsewhere, £7.5m Maddison is only marginally more expensive and already feels like a pivotal part of Postecoglou’s plans. He had fewer shots in the box and penalty area touches against Brentford than Kulusevski, Son and Richarlison but created more chances than all of his team-mates combined.

The former Leicester playmaker finished as the match’s top performer for expected goal involvement (xGI), too.

He feels like the risk-free Spurs option to go for right now, at least until the transfer window passes after Gameweek 4.

Son will sorely miss his friend Kane both on and off the pitch. They’ve combined for 47 Premier League goals, which is at least 11 more than any other pairing.

But during the four most recent campaigns, Son has six goals and one assist from 10 Kane-less appearances. Even a disappointing 2022/23 brought ten strikes and a midfield ranking of 13th. Let’s not forget he was 2021/22’s joint Golden Boot winner, too.

He’s not someone to write off, then, but he’ll need to go to some lengths to warrant the extra £1.5m/£2.0m outlay on the three FPL midfielders around him.

Without any European football to test the squad, there is some optimism that Postecoglou’s Spurs can evolve from a heavy Kane reliance and eventually come out the other side as a well-functioning top team. The Richarlison bandwagon will gather momentum if a new senior striker isn’t added to the ranks by Gameweek 5; the Maddison one is already underway.