...BUT CAN HARRY BE REPLACED?
AS KANE says, England might target Scotland goalkeeper David Marshall. The England skipper has faced Marshall six times in his career, with the goalkeeper coming out on top with five clean sheets. However, last time they faced each other, Kane got a hat-trick for Tottenham against Marshall’s Hull City in May 2017.
SINCE Gareth Southgate took charge of England, Harry Kane has featured in 38 of the 55 games. Here is how England compare with and without their so-called talisman under Southgate...
SOMEBODY said to me yesterday that Patrik Schick’s header against Scotland was ‘Suttonesque’. I just wish they’d said the same about his 50-yard wonderstrike! I never got to score a goal from the halfway line in my career. To tell the truth, I never even tried it — I knew my limits. But Schick was audacious enough to give the shot a go and he executed it wonderfully. There is more to this 25-year-old than the capacity to swing his left leg like it’s a golf club, however. This is what England must beware when they face Schick at Wembley next week.
■ SCHICK signed for Roma in 2017 but he wasn’t exactly prolific in Serie A. He scored just twice in 2017-18, then three times in 2018-19. It wasn’t entirely his fault, mind. With Edin Dzeko ahead of him in the pecking order, the left-footed Schick often played on the right. That’s not where he is at his best. He’s better when used as a centre forward, like he was for RB Leipzig in 2019-20 and Bayer Leverkusen in 2020-21. At 6ft 2in, Schick is built to be aerially strong. The cross for his first goal against Scotland was behind him, but he improvised by backtracking before directing his header into the far corner.
■ THE Czech star has the makings of an old-fashioned No 9 but that classic football saying — ‘nice touch for a big man’ — very much applies to Schick. Watching highlights of him in a Leipzig and Leverkusen shirt, he is often willing to drop deep and receive the ball in tight spaces. He doesn’t then dribble with it. Instead he’ll tidily pass it on to a team-mate and break forward in the hope that he can apply the finishing touch to the move.
■ I’M SURE Schick could do a job in the Premier League if any clubs are looking for a striker — and they’ll be well aware of his presence after his goals against Scotland. He’s got a bit of Patrick Bamford or Dominic Calvert-Lewin about him. A major strength of Schick’s game is his movement. He will look for any spaces left by defenders which he can make his own.