Marksman Kane’s in the firing line
HOT SHOTS WAITING IN THE WINGS
PEP GUARDIOLA could be forgiven for breathing a huge sigh of relief on Tuesday night.
Imagine if the Manchester City manager had paid £160million for a striker to fit in alongside Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and John Stones who served up the display Harry Kane produced at Wembley.
For once, the England captain carried his club form into the international arena against Hungary – and that has to get Gareth Southgate thinking too.
However, the Three Lions manager refused to answer the question slowly rearing its head – should Kane still be an automatic choice when it comes to the opening game of the 2022 World Cup? “We’ve got competition for places in every position on the pitch and we need that,” Southgate said instead.
“I remember when I first took over, we didn’t have Harry for the first couple of camps.
“There have been a lot of occasions where players have been playing at their best and different occasions when players might be going through dips.”
Undoubtedly, this is one of those rare periods for Kane.
From his failure to convert Luke Shaw’s early cross to his wayward header from the
resulting corner and his shanked volley high and wide, he was out of sorts.
With England chasing a win, he was taken off and replaced by Tammy Abraham.
Yet more contenders wait in the wings ready to stake a claim for that No.9 position.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has never let England down and Mason Greenwood is likely to be involved next month against Albania and San Marino.
But it is Marcus Rashford – scoring again after surgery in a behindclosed-doors game for Manchester United – who is best equipped to challenge Kane for his position.
He turns 24 this month and that is the age when Kane’s England career caught alight with a string of goals, starting against Scotland and France, that led all the way to the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot.
Rashford’s 12 goals for his country before his 24th birthday compare well to Kane’s eight.
And next month is a vital one to have a front line that is really firing on all cylinders.
Southgate knows he needs more invention going forward if England are to continue to be a real force and, for all its failings on Tuesday, he is clearly keen to try Foden and Grealish in a combination again with fullyfunctioning attackers in front of them.
“It is about picking your best players versus creating the proper balance for the team. That’s something we’ve got right over a long period of time and it’ll be one of the things that I reflect upon,” Southgate said. “The balance of a team is crucial and we didn’t create the positive effect. We were too open and we were a little bit more open without the ball.”
Qatar is now only 13 months away.