Captain confident of late Cup lift

Harry Kane has warned he is ready to explode at the World Cup after “tapering” his workload to peak at the knockout stages in Qatar.

The England captain, who has three assists from Group B games ahead of this morning’s last-16 clash against Senegal, has followed a similar training plan to the Euros last year, when he started scoring after the group stage and ended up with four goals in total.

He has followed his plan to build momentum into tournaments since feeling he faded at the World Cup in Russia four years ago despite winning the Golden Boot.

“Back in 2018 at the World Cup, I scored a lot of goals in the group stage and then felt not just my goals but performances maybe ran out of steam at the back end of the tournament, so the Euros was something I was really conscious of, trying to taper that so I was physically in a better place and hopefully help me score goals later in the tournament and it worked,” he said.

“So this is similar. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have scored three or four goals by now but I also feel I am in a good place.”

Kane will address teammates ahead of facing Aliou Cisse’s team, telling them they are four games away from football’s ultimate glory and are now in a separate competition, having qualified with the best record in the tournament.

Back in 2018 at the World Cup, I felt not just my goals but performances maybe ran out of steam.

England captain Harry Kane

“It is almost a separate tournament now and you have four knockout games to prepare for and it is a totally different mindset. We’ve done the first bit well and we had some good positives and things we need to improve. Now it starts again with a four-game tournament to try and win the World Cup.

“It is where you win tournaments. When you get to knockout games, a lot of the games come down to 1-0s or extra-time and penalty shootouts. That is when being more clinical and ruthless and taking the one chance you get a game becomes more important.

“At the Euros, it worked well for me and helped the team, and I feel if I can do similar personally, it will put the team in a good place to go as far as we can.”

Kane defended Gareth Southgate following criticism of the manager after Nations League defeats and questions from pundits over his team selection in Qatar.

“A lot of the players were really protective of the manager. We realised what the turnaround he has made for us as a team, not just on the pitch, but off the pitch with the media, with the fans, and it’s been a huge difference.

“He’s been a fantastic manager and I said then to judge all of us on major tournaments, and so far, it’s been going well. Even going through the group and finishing top, sometimes we kind of take that for granted now because we’ve had two really successful tournaments.

“Gareth has been the main part in that, and from a player’s point of view, we’re really grateful to have him as our manager, and I think as a country, we should be really grateful to have him as a manager.”