Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HARRY NEEDS HOLE LOT OF HELP
Sir Geoff: Kane can’t be only one scoring goals!
SIR GEOFF HURST says England must ease the goalscoring burden on Harry Kane if they are going to win the World Cup this winter.
Three Lions legend Hurst, hat-trick hero of England’s 1966 World Cup triumph, believes Gareth Southgate’s side have what it takes to lift the trophy in Qatar. But he says Southgate’s players must share the goals around, and not be overreliant on captain Kane to put the ball in the net, if they are to end the nation’s 56-year wait for a major trophy. “At major tournaments, like the World Cup, it’s beneficial if you’ve got a number of players who can score goals,” said Hurst. “You could argue we may be a bit too reliant on Kane.
“It would be nice if the likes of Declan Rice, whom I spoke to about this a while back, could improve his game by nicking a few more goals, like Martin Peters did.
“Kalvin Phillips scored a goal recently in one of the games at Wembley, so I do think they need to be coming up with more goals – even the centre-halves coming in and nicking one or two.
“In 1966, we had Roger Hunt and Jimmy Greaves, both of whom were great goalscorers. Jimmy got injured, of course, then I came in and scored goals.
“Martin Peters had a great goalscoring record, something like one in three for England.
“Alan Ball scored goals and Sir Bobby Charlton, for a midfield player, his goalscoring record was astonishing.
“People talk about Wayne Rooney and Kane beating his record, but Bobby was a midfield player. He played 106 games and scored 49 goals – one in two at international level. It shows how important it is for a number of players within the team to score goals. You can’t just rely on one player, because they might not get the service or they might get injured.”
Hurst does not think England’s recent poor results in the Nations League – two defeats to Hungary (Kane feels the pain, left) and draws with Germany and Italy – will have any bearing on their World Cup chances.
“Gareth was looking at as many players as he could, in preparation for the World Cup,” said Hurst.
“I’m really optimistic about our chances. In the last couple of big tournaments, we’ve reached the final of the Euros and the semi-finals of the World Cup.
“That was a major step forward and I’m a lot more hopeful, as a fan of England, than I have been for some time.”
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