SHEAR LACK OF TOP STRIKERS

SPEAKING of strikers, I’m a bit stunned to see there are just three in Gareth Southgate’s squad – two thirtysomethings and a kid who’s barely played a game.

I look back to when I was fighting for a place in the England side and I was up against Alan Shearer (left), Teddy Sheringham, Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Andy Cole, Matt Le Tissier, Stan Collymore, Michael Owen, Chris Sutton, Kevin Phillips and Paul Merson, to name a few.

Why are there so few top-class English strikers now? Well, for a start, the formations so many sides use now dictate they play with one striker.

When I look back, it was always about great partnerships, strikers playing off each other and complementing each other, but the European teams didn’t really have those kinds of relationships.

They tended towards the lone striker and I think you see that now in the Premier League. It has become the norm over here, which means there is less demand for forwards.

Look around, too, and the big clubs all have foreign strikers in their lone role. Costa, Aguero, Ibrahimovic, Firmino, Sanchez, Lukaku. Of the top seven, only Kane is an Englishman playing centre-forward and that is a worrying stat.

It filters down to the academies too. Not only do they mimic the first team in style of play, meaning there is less room for strikers, but they tend to get kids in from overseas at a young age.

Kane would be a shoo-in for this England team if uninjured, but unless something changes at the top of the Premier League, we may lack centre-forwards... and that means we may struggle.