HENDO v HARRY
Henderson: Of course I want to be skipper, but the gaffer’s idea of spreading it around is developing leadership throughout the team
GARETH SOUTHGATE has made it a straight fight between Jordan Henderson and Harry Kane for the England captaincy.
Three Lions boss Southgate wants to “divide” the responsibility between his players and nurture more leaders within the squad.
And he is making Kane and Henderson audition for the armband leading up to next summer’s World Cup finals.
Tottenham striker Kane, who captained the team for the internationals in June, is stating his case with goals after scoring five in his last three England appearances.
Kop skipper Henderson wore the armband in Malta on Friday and admits he is desperate for the job on a fulltime basis.
He said: “It’s a huge honour to captain your country but the gaffer wants to bring leaders through the group.
“I’m sure different people will be captaining the team through the campaign and it’s good that we’ll encourage more leaders. That’s what will happen over the next few games but it’s been brilliant to captain my country again.
“Harry was captain in the previous few games, Joe (Hart) has been captain before, and Gary (Cahill) has been captain before and so I think there are still a few people who can do the job.
“But the gaffer doesn’t want to give that responsibility to one person, he wants to divide it and I think it’s a good idea. I’m sure anyone would want to captain their country.
“We’ve got a few leaders and also young players coming through who can lead and the gaffer’s idea to bring them through is good.
“We’ve had conversations about changing it. Harry was captain in the last squad, Gary and Joe have done it before, I’ve done it before – it’s about sharing that responsibility as a group and as a team and I think that’s important going forward.”
Southgate’s idea is to take away the emphasis on one player being England’s leader following the razzmatazz surrounding the last few skippers like David Beckham, John Terry and Wayne Rooney.
It was clear against Iceland in the Euros last summer that England lacked leadership.
That is the concern for Southgate and he wants more players to accept that responsibility.
But despite publicly insist- ing that he may not name a regular captain, he will need one for all the pomp and ceremony before Russia next summer.
That is the role Henderson, captain of a Liverpool team in great form, has his eye on.
Against Malta on Friday night it looked as if captaincy brought the best out of him, and he also says all the right things as far as the fans are concerned.
Many fans left long before full-time in Malta, fed up with a dull game that was lifted only by a flurry of late goals.
They even jeered their way through it until that late goal rush sparked by Kane’s opener – and Anfield leader Henderson insists he has sympathy with them.
He added: “You can understand it, they travel a long way and they want to see us scoring goals and creating a lot of chances.
“But sometimes in football it doesn’t always work out like that. You’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to be professional, and I felt we did that and did the job in the end.
“When you’re jogging off the pitch you can hear it sometimes but when you’re playing the game, you’re focused on what you need to do, how you need to break the team down.
“That’s their choice. I felt in the second half we did a good job, scored good goals, kept a clean sheet. So there are still positives to take from the game.
“We have to thank the fans no matter what because they travelled a long way to support us.”