Who is better: Henry, Kane or Shearer


Thierry Henry


Who is better: Henry, Kane or Shearer

By Jonny Bray

After scoring twice in Tottenham Hotspur's 5-0 win against Everton, Harry Kane overtook Arsenal legend Thierry Henry in the all-time Premier League goalscoring charts.

The England captain has now scored 177 Premier League goals and is just 83  away from levelling Alan Shearer's record of 260.

It is undoubtedly an incredible achievement, and even Gooners have to admit that Kane has gone above and beyond what many football fans expected from him at the start of his career.

However, his achievement has sparked debate. Spurs fans are now arguing that Kane is a better player than Henry and Shearer, much to the disgust of Arsenal supporters up and down the country.

Newcastle fans have also stood by their man, pointing out that Kane still has a long way to go before he overtakes the North East icon's record.

So what better time to take a look at who the better player was?

Is it Kane, Shearer or Henry?
Thierry Henry
In many ways, Thierry Henry was ahead of his time.

In an era where fans loved how players made them feel rather than their cold hard statistics, Henry foreshadowed Messi in the sense that he was a pleasure to watch while still producing outrageous numbers.

There aren't enough adjectives in the English language to describe how good Henry was, and despite not winning the Ballon d'Or, many people believe he was the best player in the world between 2002 and 2005.

That is what makes him stand apart from Kane and Shearer.

Unlike the two England stars, Henry can boast that, for a time, he was the best player on the planet.

Despite being an outstanding goalscorer, Shearer isn't regarded as the best English player of his generation, with Paul Gascoigne lighting up the start of his career and the 'Golden Generation' breaking through at the end of it.

Kane probably is the best English player of his generation alongside Raheem Sterling.

Still, Neymar, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Mohamed Salah could all say they're better than him.

Henry also brought much more to his game than Shearer.

Shearer was a lethal finisher, but you would not see him dribble 20 to 30 yards with the ball and embarrassing players with sublime skill.

Kane does have a lot more to his game than goals, but he is far more of a playmaker than a dribbler.

However, despite that fact, Henry still has 74 assists - 37 more than Kane - who has also played more games than the French icon.
Alan Shearer
If my life was on the line and I had to back one of these three players in a one-on-one with Peter Schmeichel, I'd choose Alan Shearer every time.

The former Newcastle, Blackburn and Southampton star is comfortably the best finisher of the three strikers.

He also had incredible longevity.

He scored 23 top-flight goals that are not even included in his record as the Premier League was not yet formed.

But sadly, I don't believe he is on Henry's level.

The Premier League winner was an incredible player, and it would be foolish to try and disrespect his legacy in the game.

The French forward was just the better all-round player.

In this argument, the one criticism you can make of Shearer is that he achieved his record in 441 games.

Henry only scored 85 fewer goals despite playing 183 games less than Shearer.

It's quite reasonable to believe that Henry would have overtaken Shearer had he not left for Barcelona.
Harry Kane
A lot of the recent criticism of Harry Kane has been completely unfair.

Love him or hate him, the Spurs striker is a generational talent that sculpted himself into one of the greatest goalscorers in Premier League history.

He has shown that he is more than just a goalscorer in recent years, highlighting his passing range when dropping deep and linking up with Son Heung-min.

And more than anything else, the story of a striker that no one really rated morphing himself into a player who can carry a side to a Champions League Final is incredibly inspirational.

But again, I think people forget just how good Henry was.
As previously stated, Henry has more assists in fewer games despite Kane being known as more of a playmaker.

Kane also doesn't have Henry's electric pace, perhaps the only fundamental flaw in the England captain's game.
Conclusion
Henry is comfortably the best of the three players. AFTV may be biased, but any neutral fan will agree.

Kane is probably a better player than Shearer, but the Newcastle legend's finishing and long-standing record as the League's top-scorer will go down in history.

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