Tottenham boss Nuno Espirito Santo was pleased with Harry Kane’s contribution as he made his long-awaited return to the side in Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League win at Wolves.
The England captain was not involved in the opening two games of the season following his late return from holiday amid his desire to join Manchester City.
But with Spurs holding firm in their insistence that he is not for sale, he came on in the 72nd minute of a match that was decided by Dele Alli’s 10th-minute penalty.
🎙 "We defended well against a tough team that caused us a lot of problems." Listen to what Nuno had to say about today's performance! 👇 pic.twitter.com/5H7mltxABD — Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 22, 2021
He immediately improved Nuno’s side and could have marked his return with a goal, but saw a good chance saved by Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa.
Nuno, who enjoyed a winning return to Molineux and has seen his new side win two Premier League games from two, said: “I think he did well, he helped the team, he had a good chance.
“Harry is still in the process of increasing and improving his level of fitness, but he is one of the best players in the world.
“You can see how he helped the team in terms of possession and the fine lines so we need everybody.”
Tottenham are next in action on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League play-off second leg against Pacos de Ferreira, where they may need some of their better attacking players to help turn around a 1-0 first-leg deficit.
Whether Kane would be involved, Nuno added: “I cannot answer you that, it’s too soon. Now we are going to recover and prepare for the next one. Like we always do the same way and make the decisions that we should take.
“Now I cannot answer you that, I’m sorry.
“He’s better, he’s better today. He has to work tomorrow and keep improving. You cannot put a bar on that.
“It’s day-by-day. Every day he improves, he improves.”
Brilliant battling win 💪 pic.twitter.com/eomNg50jPm — Harry Kane (@HKane) August 22, 2021
While Spurs have won both of their Premier League games 1-0, Wolves have lost both by the same scoreline following last weekend’s defeat at Leicester as Bruno Lage waits for his first point since taking over from Nuno.
They arguably deserved something out of this game as they dominated for large parts and created enough chances to have taken something out of it, with Adama Traore missing the best chance when he missed a one-on-one opportunity in the second half.
Asked whether his side should have taken a point, Lage said: “I have the feeling that someone asked the same question last week.
“I don’t want to go in that way, what I want to say is this is the way we want to play and that is why we are working hard all week.
There were 30,368 of you inside Molineux this afternoon with 2,845 travelling @SpursOfficial supporters. It was amazing to have you back 💛 pic.twitter.com/eQUsgcQodq — Wolves (@Wolves) August 22, 2021
“We did well, the game stayed in our hands for 90 minutes.
“We had 25 attempts to score one goal – and in two games we have 42 – and we didn’t score, so in the end I am happy with the performance but not the result.
“We are challenging the players to play in this way and we need to continue to work and score goals.
“If we play like that and create, chances are going to be good, that is the way we want to play.”
