It was an all too familiar feeling for Harry Kane and England against Spain. Yet another opportunity was missed, and yet another trophy slipped through their fingers. Make no mistake about it, Spain were the best team in this tournament. But England had them in the ropes especially when Kane wasn’t on the field. The Spaniards were on the back foot and then all of a sudden, the Three Lions reverted back to type.
Now with Gareth Southgate resigning, the new manager has a headache. He or she (since Sarina Wiegman has been linked with the job) must get the best out of their premier striker. Team selection around Southgate was a constant topic of debate and rightfully so since the likes of Anthony Gordon, and Trent Alexander-Arnold barely saw any minutes. But the role of Kane and how he’s deployed is perhaps the biggest concern for the new manager.
Naturally being the talismanic figure that Kane is and being the captain of the side, the forward has come into immense criticism after this defeat. Much like the previous tournaments, Kane has not taken a game by the scruff of its neck and made it his own. He’s scored goals, certainly, but Kane always scores goals. When the lights are the brightest, Kane has dwindled. Not always, not most, but those moments seem to be narrative defining for England.
Hence, the narrative right now is that Kane is holding England back. Kane is restricting his fellow English attackers from expressing themselves on the pitch. Such criticism is an oversimplification. Kane is not holding any of his teammates back. But at the same time, Kane is also not making them better, like he’s done for his club sides, especially Tottenham Hotspur. Concurrently, the England captain is somewhat being misemployed.
harry Kane is a tactical headache for england
Harry Kane isn’t your quintessential number nine. He can be and he is more often than not. But what makes him truly great is his ability to drop deep, link up play, and distribute to runners. Kane’s ability on the ball as a forward is perhaps second to none this sport has ever seen. He is 6 feet 2 inches tall, excellent in holding up the play, and the second he’s turned and has the ball at his feet, the opposing defence is petrified and instantly drop deep.
Hence, the usage of Kane in the last couple of years has been to almost deploy him as a forward who is also a 10. That was the problem this time for England. Kane was not needed to get on the ball and make things happen. England needed the pure goalscorer, the one who would get on the end of crosses and put the ball in the back of the net. The heat map below suggests that Kane spent more time outside the box than inside. A lot of it might have to do with the fact that England always surrendered possession against teams but even then, this heat map is not acceptable for a striker.
This is the biggest reason why Kane wasn’t scoring as many goals as England fans expected him to. With that said, a lot of this blame must fall on the shoulders of Gareth Southgate. The England manager has done a lot of things right this tournament but this was not one of them. In fact, the sooner he had realised this and asked Kane to just stay upfield, the better England’s chances would have been in this tournament. Despite this, Kane still finished as England’s top scorer and the joint top-scorer of the tournament. He was clinical with the little chances he had all tournament long.
What also must be mentioned is that Kane is nowhere close to being fit. He was never the most mobile forward in world football but his movement this summer has been of a player suffering from back injuries. It’s no coincidence that Kane missed nearly the entire last month of Bundesliga action for Bayern Munich.
How must Kane be used by England going forward?
England have more than enough quality in the middle of the pitch. In fact, they have too much. Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, and Phil Foden are some of their best players who are most potent when playing behind the striker. The Three Lions do not need Kane to drop in deep and create things. They need a bonafide forward who is a fox in the box and concerned with one thing and one thing only – scoring goals. Perhaps to satisfy Kane’s unquenchable thirst to drop deep, starting Anthony Gordon might go a long way. England has no one who can run behind defences, essentially neutralising Kane’s wizardry on the ball when he drops deep. Gordon is the solution to that.
But more than all of this, Harry Kane must realise that he’s the main man. He must demand for the ball in the box, he must demand for service inside the penalty area. There is simply no other way of putting it. And the new man in charge must facilitate that. He or she must feed his striker. England have never been built around a particular player in the last couple of years. That’s worked well but not really brought success. Right now, there are question marks about Kane. The new England manager must double down, feed his striker and build the team around him, right now more than ever.
