Tottenham striker Lamela defends struggling Kane

© AP Photo/Antonio Calanni

Harry Kane is not a “machine” and it is only a matter of time before he is back among the goals, according to Tottenham team-mate Erik Lamela.

The under-fire striker endured another frustrating night on Tuesday as Spurs slumped to a late 2-1 Champions League defeat at Inter Milan, doing little to take the focus away from his form and fitness.

The England captain and has now gone five games for club and country without scoring.

He missed a good opportunity at San Siro, one he would have normally gobbled up had he been at his best, but Lamela insists Kane should not be the only player to carry the scoring burden for Spurs.

“Harry is not a machine. He scores a lot. He always scores,” Lamela said.

“Here he didn’t and for two or three games he didn’t. But he will score again.

“It’s not like Harry needs to score every single game. Christian (Eriksen) scored, I scored in the last game. Sonny (Son Heung-min) will score. Lucas (Moura) will score. All the pressure is not on Harry.

“All the attacking players need to score. And that’s it.”

Lamela insists there is no crisis of confidence at Tottenham, even though the defeat to Inter means they have lost three games in a row for the first time under Mauricio Pochettino.

The visitors capitulated late on in Milan as efforts from Mauro Icardi and Matias Vecino in the final eight minutes turned the match on its head following Eriksen’s deflected goal.

That loss followed back-to-back Premier League defeats to Watford and Liverpool and Pochettino’s men are already being written off in some quarters.

But Lamela says the belief within the group is strong.

“I don’t think we’re losing our confidence,” he said. “We believe in each other in this team.

“That’s why we always fight until the end of the season.

“Of course, now you’re thinking like this. But inside the dressing room, I can tell you it’s not like this.

“We believe in this team. It’s time to win again. This will help a lot, but we have confidence in ourselves.

“The feeling is like when you lose – bad, bad. We need to keep going and move on.

“It’s the only way to recover from this – to keep putting everything on the pitch and try to get back to winning ways.”