Harry Kane reflects on new ‘super sub role’ in the Bundesliga: “Not something I’m used to.” | OneFootball

If one only happened to take a quick glimpse at the scoresheet, all appeared to be normal in Bayern Munich’s latest lopsided Bundesliga victory. The German record champions demolished opponents VfB Stuttgart 0-5 away. England national team striker Harry Kane collected another hat trick. Business as usual? Not exactly. Kane’s latest three Bundesliga goals came off the bench.

Just as he did in an important league fixture against Bayer Leverkusen a little over a month ago, FCB head coach Vincent Kompany rotated his squad courageously as a means of resting important players ahead of the next Champions League match. Kane remained on the bench whilst Nicolas Jackson spearheaded Kompany’s 4-2-3-1. 

The fact that Kompany began two league matches – both against Bundesliga top four contenders no less – without his star player speaks volumes about how strong this year’s incarnation of Bayern is. In both instances, Bayern dominated and shut out two league sides that (on paper at least) were supposed to serve as legitimate challengers. 

Kompany explained his squad rotations much as he did last time, calmly expressing confidence that his better players could come on the shape the game later. Kompany noted that he loved how “the other players tired out the opponent and paved the way for Harry” when speaking to German broadcaster DAZN afterwards. 

What does Harry Kane say of this?

The German term “joker” (a German footballing cliché that has been wrongly expanded to describe any player who is subbed on later in a match) originally referred to players who function as a “wild card” or “super sub”. Kane obviously isn’t a “joker” in the original sense that the German card-deck-metaphor meant. The 32-year-old has stared all three of Bayern’s cup fixtures and all five of Bayern’s Champions League games. 

This matchday 13 encounter and the matchday nine match against Leverkusen are also the only times Kane began the match on the bench. One can nevertheless expect more such matches in the future as Bayern continue to steamroll their way through the Bundesliga whilst prioritizing the other competitions.

“It’s something I’m obviously not quite used to,” Kane told Sky Germany afterwards, “but my teammates put in a lot of great work [ahead of my hat-trick].“

GGFN | Peter Weis