Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
...FOR HARRY, ENGLAND AND ST GEORGE... WRAP HIM IN COTTON WOOL
Kane is England’s best – maybe only – hope in the World Cup... please don’t let him get injured
LET’S just wrap him up in cotton wool.
Without him, England do not stand a chance in Russia next summer.
Harry Kane is quite simply England’s best hope, maybe our only hope, and he is in the form of his life.
Once again, it was the Spurs striker who clinched victory in yet another otherwise instantly forgettable England performance, full of mediocrity and disappointment.
He has now scored 15 goals in his last 10 games for club and country.
With his 12th for England, he will be shooting up the list of all-time goalscorers in no time.
The worst nightmare for the Three Lions is for Kane to get injured or suffer a dip in form before the World Cup finals because, without him, it is hard to know where the goals will come from.
The skipper bailed out England against Slovenia last Thursday and he did it again with a perfectly-taken penalty, struck in off a post to beat keeper Ernestas Setkus.
That was as good as it got for England as far too many players lacked urgency, intensity and a determination to grasp their opportunity in a mix-and-match line-up.
The one shining star was Harry Winks, who seized his chance with a terrific senior debut, as he glided across the 3G plastic pitch, picking passes and looking the ball-playing midfielder England have been desperate to find.
Winks, 21, has started just four Premier League games for Spurs but already looks at home at international level and will have done his World Cup hopes a power of good.
Jack Butland made some good saves – the best from his own defender Michael Keane – and yet did not get many opportunities to show that he can replace Joe Hart as England’s No.1. Other than that, it was another drab display in the drizzle in Vilnius, and the 1,800 travelling fans deserve a medal for braving the rain and cheering throughout.
England’s players, led by Gareth Southgate, went onto the pitch after the final whistle and applauded the soaked supporters. It is now 39 games unbeaten in qualifying matches and the fourth successive campaign without losing a game. It is difficult to be too critical.
But Lithuania are ranked 89th in the world, have been the Group F whipping boys and, worryingly, England made them look better than they are.
If Southgate’s men cannot look good now then what
chance next summer? They have dominated the qualifying campaign, won it easily, and yet the Three Lions’ expectations have rarely been so low.
We will get a better indication next month with the friendlies against Germany and Brazil, but the last few qualifying campaigns have only succeeded in blurring the true picture of where England really are.
Southgate did experiment with a back three and the formation worked quite well, giving them width with Kieran Trippier and Aaron Cresswell in the wing-back roles, allowing more players to get forward.
But Jordan Henderson and Dele Alli look out of form for England, unable to provide the supporting act.
At least the two of them combined in the key moment as Henderson’s flick put in Alli, who was bundled over by Lithuania defender Linas Klimavicius.
Up stepped Kane and his 27th-minute penalty low and hard flew in off the inside of a post. You expected that England would go on and score more but they did not.
Harry Maguire and Keane missed openings, the latter nearly put through his own net.
Winks and Cresswell had good efforts saved by Setkus.
With just six minutes left, Butland made another good save to deny Deivydas Matulevicius, but that was as close as Lithuania got.
Three Lions boss Southgate said before the game that some of England’s players are not as good as they think they are.
But Kane is one player who we can allow ourselves to get excited about.