STRIKE RIVALS TO JOIN FORCES
England will launch Kane and Vardy at Turks
IT WAS only a few weeks ago that Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy were taunting each other on social media with photographs of lions, Tottenham’s striker igniting the exchange by suggesting his side would hunt down Leicester’s supposedly inferior Foxes.
In the end Vardy had the last word, marking Tottenham’s loss at Chelsea — and with it Leicester’s title victory — with a picture of the Lion King’s Mufasa falling down a cliff.
Kane winced when he was reminded of the exchange this week but he did deliver a witty riposte. ‘It’s the Three Lions now,’ he said, urging his inquisitors to move on.
By his own admission Kane had not mentioned what he described as ‘a bit of banter between fellow professionals’ after joining Vardy at England’s St George’s Park training camp.
‘I congratulated him and Danny Drinkwater on winning the Premier League but nothing was said about the lions,’ Kane smiled.
In fairness, it is time to put club rivalries aside and focus on combining forces in England’s attack.
Roy Hodgson, England’s manager, will almost certainly use tomorrow’s friendly against Turkey at Manchester’s Etihad Stadium to examine the option of unleashing Kane and Vardy as a pair at the European Championship next month.
In the absence of Wayne Rooney — on FA Cup final duty with Manchester United — it would also seem likely that Hodgson will deploy Dele Alli behind them at the tip of a midfield diamond.
How they do will be interesting, given the growing clamour to see the Premier League’s two most prolific strikers line up for that opening group encounter with Russia on June 11.
Hodgson has other options, and the quality of the goal Daniel Sturridge scored in this week’s Europa League final would not have gone unnoticed.
But there is no denying that in Kane and Vardy England boast two impressively potent forwards who, given their contrasting attributes, could complement each other extremely well.
For England there will be two more warm-up games — Australia in Sunderland next Friday and Portugal at Wembley on June 2, four days before they leave for their training base in Chantilly.
But the game with Turkey could help Hodgson formulate his plans even if the majority of players from Liverpool and Manchester United will be missing. Under- standably, given his lack of matches for Liverpool towards the end of the season, Jordan Henderson took part in a training session yesterday that was watched by England rugby coach Eddie Jones.
It is not certain that Henderson will start but Jack Wilshere almost certainly will. That, too, could see a team for Russia developing in Hodgson’s mind. The manager believes Wilshere’s passing ability cannot be matched by any other squad member and will hope he looks sharp.
With Gary Cahill back training yesterday after recovering from the knock he suffered during the final game of Chelsea’s season, Hodgson has two centre halves, with John Stones the other. That said, United’s Chris Smalling remains the most likely centre back to face Russia.
It is the midfield diamond that Hodgson still has to decide on. Rooney now sees himself more as a midfielder and Hodgson also values the England captain for his leadership qualities. But a fine display by Alli and the debate on who plays where, and whether the Tottenham youngster should be deployed directly behind the strikers, will gather pace.
Pace on the field is what Hodgson will be hoping to see in Manchester tomorrow evening. He has selected a squad oozing with youth, flair and energy and will want his players to approach this friendly with the fearlessness they displayed against Germany in March.
Kane thinks that will be the case. He hopes the tournament novices, of which he is one, will approach Euro 2016 with the same vigour and dynamism Rooney displayed as a teenager in Portugal 12 years ago.
‘I’d have been 10 or 11 then so I have some memory of Euro 2004,’ said Kane, ‘but that’s what we’ve got to try to do. For a lot of us it’s our first major tournament, so there’s no fear. We are not scared to play our football. Throughout the whole international year we’ve been playing well, we’ve been going out and trying to play good football. We’ve been scoring goals, pressing high. That’s what the manager wants and that’s what we’ll try to do.’
Kane says they can take inspiration from their recent win against the world champions in Berlin. ‘That was a special moment,’ he said.
‘I felt we had played very well for the whole game and were a bit unlucky to be 2-0 down.
‘ When we went two goals down maybe a lot of other teams would have faltered and thrown in the towel, but we showed our spirit.
‘We’ve got to take stuff from that game and take it into the friendlies and the Euros.’