Kane one of the best, Bilic says

Slaven Bilic says Harry Kane should be regarded as one of the best strikers in the world after West Ham suffered at the hands of the Tottenham star on Saturday.

Kane scored twice as Spurs won 3-2 at the London Stadium, the striker bagging a quickfire double towards the end of a first half that Bilic’s side had largely dominated.

Christian Eriksen had put Spurs 3-0 up after the break, but they had to cling on to victory, as Serge Aurier was sent off either side of goals from Javier Hernandez and Cheikhou Kouyate.

Left to rue Kane’s vital, clinical contribution, Bilic highlighted his satisfaction at his defence’s display, but admitted they were powerless to stop the England man.

Bilic told a news conference: “The best compliment I can give him is that we played with three centre-backs and I really think that [Jose] Fonte – who went out for tactical reasons – [Winston] Reid and Angelo Ogbonna all had really good games.

“So, my three centre-backs who are mostly against him and Dele Alli, they didn’t have a bad game and still, still he was using those situations and basically decided the game and my centre-backs were good. That says volumes.

“He’s one of the best, yeah. If there are ten of them then yes, if there are only two then maybe not, but ten of them, yes. He does it week in, week out now.”

Hernandez scored West Ham’s first, having been moved from a central starting position to the side of Andy Carroll, after the target man replaced the injured Michail Antonio.

Bilic conceded that he is yet to find a way to fit Hernandez, Carroll, Antonio and Marko Arnautovic into the same team.

“I spoke to him [Hernandez] after [the] West Brom game and today he started as a centre forward and then he had to change the position because we wanted to stay in the same system as it was working well,” Bilic said.

“Even then, he was in good areas so you can’t say he was out wide. Against top teams everyone has to defend and he was in a position where he would have been if we were playing two strikers.

“When we were attacking he was not playing on the wing, he was a striker. It’s not very easy to play with him, Andy, Antonio and Arnautovic and play with three centre-backs.”