A player can go their entire career without scoring a hat-trick. Some players may never hit the back of the net two times in one game. Harry Kane? Well, he scores hat-tricks off the bench. That’s exactly what he did against VfB Stuttgart.
Kane only entered the game in the 61st minute. It only took the Englishman five minutes to get his name on the scoresheet after his fantastic finish from outside the box. By the end of the 90 minutes, Kane signed his scorecard with a hat-trick in 30 minutes of game time.
Another frighteningly good performance from Bayern’s leading goalscorer this season. While Kane deserves his flowers, he may also have his manager, Vincent Kompany, to thank.
The Belgian manager explained the tactical rationale behind benching the 32-year-old striker, which worked exactly as planned.
“I had this change in mind before the game started,” Kompany began explaining in a post-match interview (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “We have four games in 11 days. If I start Harry every game and he plays 90 minutes, I’ll get questions about why he always plays. Every time we played Stuttgart we’ve always grown stronger as the game progressed. I felt the spaces would be bigger when Harry came on, it was a good moment for him to come. And he did what he does.”
The decision to bench Kane against a formidable opponent like Stuttgart was met with skepticism. On the surface it could have been written off as necessary rest — which was part of it. But after hearing Kompany’s reasoning behind leaving his top goalscorer on the bench in such an important game shows you just how well he thought it through.
Kudos to Kane and Kompany for stealing the show in another impressive victory for Bayern.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
