Kane's Bayern debut ends in defeat: Gomez & Lahm on pressure facing No.9

When Harry Kane finally left Tottenham, 4369 days had passed since his debut, every one of them without a trophy. The expectation was that he would break that cycle on day one at Bayern Munich. Instead, schadenfreude visited the €100m signing.

Dani Olmo's hat-trick stunned the expectant Bayern supporters inside the Allianz Arena as RB Leipzig won the Supercup - and there was nothing that Kane could do to prevent it. Two down when he came on. Three down before he had touched the ball.

When Bayern had talked of making him feel at home, this is not what Kane would have had in mind. He chased around but with little reward. Thomas Tuchel even apologised to his new signing afterwards for his team-mates' inability to find him with their passes.

Perhaps this defeat was for the best. There were those keen to question the value of any silverware won in a side that has made such a habit of acquiring it without him. On this evidence, it will be no foregone conclusion. He must make the difference, after all.

Two chances came and went inside 25 minutes for 18-year-old Mathys Tel, filling in for Kane up front. The teenager's very presence appeared designed to remind everyone of the hole that required filling - a visible example of why Bayern so prioritised this signing.

When Tel went through for a third time just before the hour mark, seeing his shot saved, the chants for Kane that had begun earlier in the half grew louder. The crowd, many of whom had queued for his shirt since it became available that morning, ached for his arrival.

Seeing the stadium heave with anticipation as Kane received the call to end his warm-up and race to the bench for instructions, it was impossible not to think of the pressure that comes with becoming the record signing in the history of one of the world's biggest clubs.

Kane is accustomed to carrying the weight of a club's expectations, of course. But at Spurs he was one of their own - loved long before those expectations were placed on his shoulders. At 30, there are one hundred million reasons why he must deliver here.

Asked by Sky Sports about the unique pressure that comes with being Bayern's No 9, Mario Gomez, a man who scored 113 times in the role, is adamant that dealing with that is not as psychologically straightforward as those who have never had to do it might believe.

"People who are not strikers, who are looking from the outside at this team, they always say, 'Yeah, I could also score goals in this team.' Maybe in some games," Gomez explained.

"We had games where it felt like a training game because obviously many teams are coming here and they gave up already before the game started, especially in the Allianz Arena. So maybe these games, yes, millions of strikers could have scored in these games.

"But there also different games. There are games where there is a lot of pressure because this club always has to be very successful.

"Everybody always expects a striker of Bayern Munich to score. If you score once it is not enough, you have to score another, if not a hat-trick. If you do not score in an important game they say he is a good player but not a top player. It is a different kind of pressure.

"If you are a smaller club and you want to reach the top level, that is a different kind of pressure. At this club, as you can see in the last years, if they are going out of the Champions League in the quarter-finals it is like somebody destroyed the club."

Robert Lewandowski handled that pressure for years, passing the 40-goal mark for seven seasons in a row. "You can see how important it is for them to find a striker who is really performing like Lewy did for so many years," says Gomez. It can be the difference.

Both Gomez and Lewandowski played alongside those masterful wingers Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery at Bayern, and there is talent there today capable of serving Kane. "You need the No 9s. The dribbling is only good if someone is finishing the action," says Gomez.

"This is what we had here with Arjen and Franck on my side. They were doing crazy stuff but if nobody would finalise this then nobody would remember this dribbling. But if after this dribbling someone is making a goal, this dribbling will always be on the reviews."

Philipp Lahm, former Bayern captain and eight-time Bundesliga winner, shares the view that Kane can not only finish the type of chances that Tel was unable to convert but also restructure the club's attack, providing that attacking pivot for the rest.

Asked by Sky Sports how Kane can help, he says: "After the departure of Lewandowski, Bayern were lacking that orientation. Kane can certainly bring that in the last third, giving them a clear idea of how to play and providing that orientation."

There was little sign of it on Saturday evening. While Leipzig were slick in their movement, the chemistry coming surprisingly quickly for their own new signings, Bayern appeared sluggish, the patterns of play a little off, the clarity of thinking anything but obvious.

The three goals conceded suggest there are problems at the other end of the pitch too. "He will not solve the problem in defence," says Lahm. "It is not just a No 9 but other players as well. They did not have a clear idea. They need to implement that now."

For Kane, it is a lot to take in. One imagines that at some point in the coming days, he will eventually have a moment to reflect on his wild weekend, a fever dream that took him from his boyhood club to Germany's Supercup. It is then that the reality of all this may hit him.

When it does, he will recall the adulation that has greeted his arrival, the palpable excitement among his new supporters and the sheer scale of it all. He will consider too that this Bayern team is not the finished article, the fait accompli, that some may have assumed.

"He will have a big impact on this team," says Gomez. "I wish him well because I know how important this step is for him. He is one of the best players of the moment and he has never won something. I think that is also the reason why he has come here."

For now, however, the wait goes on.