I agree that he was somewhat careless with the ball and doesn't have pace but the way I saw it (not the best view in the house, I grant you) was that he lost it a few times but it was just as often a misunderstanding between him and another. He played a perfect ball forward beyond the full back when Lennon was still making his decision as to whether or not to run. Lennon got a bit pissed off with him at the time but I maintain that Kane did the right thing there: Lennon should have made the run purely because he would outpace the full back and because there was better, safer time-wasting potential (and maybe a goal to seal it) at the United end of the pitch.
Long story short - those who are saying that the loan periods don't always work need to consider the player in question. What I've seen of Townsend so far is that he is a great athlete and wants to make it work for him - but I doubt he'll necessarily gel well with a team. Kane looks like he has a real brain on him and a lack of pace isn't going to stop him from succeeding. What made Townsend look good on loan is his clear physical ability over the competition (and his own team-mates) while, if Kane needs players to move around him and lose their markers (or to get him the ball in a certain area) he can't really be judged fairly on the basis of that.
I suspect that, if Defoe goes, Kane may be enough of a third striker to offer a different option to both Soldado and Adebayor.
