Statistical Comparison – Romelu Lukaku vs Harry Kane
The Premier League has almost come to an end and there is very little to play for, for most of the teams in the competition. While some teams are still battling for league positions, two players who will fight for individual honours on the final day of the season are Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku.
With 26 goals and 7 assists in the domestic league this season, Harry Kane is the leader for the Golden Boot award in England this season and his nearest competitor is the Belgian star Romelu Lukaku, who has 24 goals and 6 assists to his name this season. Incidentally, Kane has played almost 11 hours of football less than the Everton striker in the league, missing games to injuries. So how does the duo compare? Here is a statistical breakdown of the various aspects of their game this season:
Both players are very important to their respective clubs and are more often than not responsible for providing the breakthrough in front of goal. Lukaku has a successful passing rate of just 66% compared to the 72% for Harry Kane. But Lukaku has created 43 chances with 37 key passes to his name, Kane has threaded just 33 key passes, creating exactly 40 chances.
Both players have scored different types of goals this season and have different attributes to each other. Lukaku has not scored from the spot but has 3 goals from set-pieces this season. Kane has 9 goals to his name from set pieces, 5 of which were from 6 yards away.
Strong in the air, Lukaku has 6 headed goals, while Kane has just 2 to his name but the Spurs man has scored 4 goals from outside the penalty box, compared to just the one from Lukaku. But both players have a similar shot accuracy of around 64% throughout this season.
The Belgian has been a better dribbler than Kane this season, with a take-on success of 68% compared to just 52% by Kane. Lukaku has also been more useful in the air, winning 40% of his aerial duels and 46% of his total duels. Kane has won just 37% of his aerial duels but he has been persistent and has won 48% of his total duels. The English striker has been a man hard to mark and was fouled 44 times this season (1.62 per 90 mins) while Lukaku has attracted just 32 (0.93 per 90 mins) fouls this season.
Irrespective of all these stats, both players are among the best strikers in Europe at the moment and though Lukaku has gone cold in the last few games, the pair will be ready to resume their race at the start of next season.
Kane and Lukaku’s stats were taken from Squawka.com