Nuno 'prefers' Son, Bergwijn and Lucas in attack but has to play 'moping' Kane

A heavy defeat to north London rivals Arsenal saw Nuno's team lose their third consecutive match in the Premier League, and the England captain failed to find the net again.

Not so long ago, Spurs were top of the league and produced a fine counter-attacking performance to beat Manchester City 1-0 in their opening game of the season.

In that match, Kane was left out of Nuno's line-up as he recovered from his Euro 2020 exertions.

He opted for an attack of Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura and Heung-Min Son with the latter getting the match-winning goal.

And, speaking to talkSPORT, former Spurs striker Darren Bent claims the Portuguese manager would like to use that attack and leave out Kane.

He told talkSPORT Breakfast: "You look at the Manchester City game, first game of the season, to me that is a Nuno team in terms of sitting, defend deep and then hit you with pace.

"Son, Bergwijn, Lucas Moura, it worked really well.

"Now of course, Harry Kane has to come back into the team because he is Harry Kane, arguably one of the best centre-forwards in the world, even though he not showing that in the minute.

"He's got a player like Harry Kane so he has to play him, but do I think Nuno probably wants to go that way in terms of his centre-forward dropping off really deep or does he want three at the top end of the pitch that can run?

"I think he would prefer to probably have the three that he had at the start of the season I really do."

After publicly declaring that he would stay at Spurs, Kane looks a shadow of the player that won the Golden Boot last season.

Bent thinks he is still hungover from the failed transfer and feels the forward thought a move was sealed.

He added: "In his mind he is thinking 'right I'm not coming back to Spurs, I'm going to Manchester City, it's just about getting the deal done, but am I going to be a Manchester City player so that I can go and focus' so he looks like to me '100% I'm going'.

"Now its not happened he just looks like this, how does he get out of this rut?

"Even the way he is moping around the pitch, he's a little bit subdued and it's not like Harry Kane and obviously in the first half [against Arsenal] where he made the mistake at least he tried to avenge that mistake."