England aren’t a one-man show, says Kane
LONDON: Harry Kane insists he isn’t England’s only hope of a successful run at next year’s World Cup.
Gareth Southgate’s side booked their place at the finals in Russia with a lacklustre 1-0 win over Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday.
England’s wretched display somehow ended on an upbeat note when Kane stretched to convert Kyle Walker’s cross in stoppage-time. The Tottenham striker, named England captain for the night, was one of the few players to emerge with any credit as he continued his hot streak.
Kane has followed up successive Premier League golden boots with a blistering run of 14 goals in nine games for club and country.
He has now struck 11 times in 22 appearances for his country and looks one of the only genuine world class talents available to Southgate.
But Kane is adamant England have enough quality in other positions to help him shoulder the burden in Russia.
“It isn’t down to just me, it’s down to the whole team,” Kane said. “We’ve all got to work together as a unit. I feel physically great, every game I expect to score so I have to keep it going.
“When you’ve got someone scoring goals it helps and hopefully I can continue that from now until then, we’ll see what happens.
“But I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself personally and I don’t want the team to get too far ahead of themselves.
“I just have to keep doing what I’m doing for club and for country and see what happens next year. We can’t put any limit on what we can achieve, we just have to go there and see what happens.”
After dismal early exits from Euro 2016 and the World Cup three years ago, there is little expectation that England will do better this time.
“We know we have to be better, but we’re going to a World Cup and that’s fantastic,” said Southgate. “I think this team has potential, but we have a hell of a lot of work to do.
“We weren’t as sharp as we’d have hoped to be, but we stuck at it and it’s not a coincidence if you keep scoring late goals.” AFP