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The first England match that didn’t involve either Gareth Southgate or Harry Kane for the best part of a decade, there was a transitional feel to the alarmingly attacking Three Lions team that interim manager Lee Carsley fielded to face Greece in the Nations League on Thursday night. Unfortunately, his experiment couldn’t have gone much worse.
A shock 2-1 home defeat to a country that has been in the international wilderness for some time, this was a reality check for Carsley and a concerning vision of life without England’s record goal-scorer – even if the stand-in coach fumbled his tactics on the night.
It was abundantly clear that a disjointed side were not equipped to be without their injured captain, as they lacked a focal point in a 4-2-2-2 formation with two false nines. Kane has his critics, but defeat to the unfancied Greeks should serve as a timely and resounding reminder of just how important he is to his country. England should not be too hasty to cast him aside.
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GettyExaggerated demise
More than anything else, Thursday night was a timely reminder of just how good we’ve had it in the years since Harry Edward Kane made his senior international debut in March 2015, when he scored just 79 seconds after emerging from the bench against Lithuania.
Fast-forward nine years and 99 more caps, Kane is his county’s captain and all-time record goal-scorer, having been an ever-present in what has been the most sustained period of relative success in the history of the men’s England football team.
The striker’s fairly subdued Euro 2024 campaign has undoubtedly resulted in some recency bias, with questions raised and column inches dedicated to whether he was still the man to lead the attack at the tournament and beyond. A lumbering Kane still scored three times in Germany – the joint-highest total – despite clearly being unfit after rushing back from a late-season back problem, having bagged an obscene 44 goals for Bayern Munich in 2023-24.
Back to full fitness, he has already responded to his many critics this season by striking 10 times at club level and twice more for his country in just 11 games, while he has six assists to boot. The first of his brace on his 100th cap against Finland reflected that he is still at the top of his game, wriggling away from two defenders before cracking an unstoppable strike in off the crossbar.
When it comes to Kane – a playmaker-cum-prolific striker – there is a sense that we as England fans will never truly appreciate what we had until it’s gone – and that day is not too far off after the hitman turned 31 in the summer.
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AFPMissed opportunity
Another minor injury setback provided interim England manager Carsley an opportunity to peek through a time warp into the post-Kane world when the Three Lions hosted Greece on Thursday – a favourable fixture that was ripe for some experimentation up top, with both Ollie Watkins and Dominic Solanke deservedly earning call-ups after starting the Premier League season well.
However, everyone was left baffled when the line-ups dropped as Carsley rolled the dice with a Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week-esque XI in an attacking 4-2-2-2 shape – with no strikers in sight.
Watkins and Solanke were forced to watch on from the bench until the final half-hour as a side that had Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka AND Anthony Gordon shoehorned into it inevitably failed to gel, with Greece repeatedly exposing the space in behind a disjointed midfield as they claimed a famous 2-1 victory at Wembley.
This really should have been Watkins’ chance to prove his worth (again) and give everyone a glimpse of what the post-Kane era might look like for England, but it was an opportunity that passed Carsley by.
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AFP‘It didn’t come off’
If this was Carsley’s idea of how England should shape up in the future, he won’t have impressed his potential bosses. Indeed, he may well have fluffed his chances of landing the job on a permanent basis as he went against predecessor Gareth Southgate’s more pragmatic footballing philosophy and threw all caution to the wind.
“I never at any point thought that I have got it cracked. It was a case of let’s try something different and I’m happy to take blame for that. It was totally my idea,” he said afterwards. “I thought about it long and hard, in terms how it might look, how it might build and how it might feel. It is something that didn’t come off but I don’t think we should rule out having that opportunity to try something different.”
By his own admission, the plan was half-baked: “We tried something different and tried to overload the midfield. We tried it for 20 minutes yesterday [Wednesday], we experimented and we’re disappointed it didn’t come off. It’s unrealistic to expect too much and we will have to try again. It’s definitely an option going forward. It doesn’t change anything. My remit is to do three camps.”
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Getty Images SportAttacking conundrum
So England still have a problem in attack, but it isn’t in the No.9 position. Carsley – or whoever replaces Southgate permanently – must strike the right balance behind the centre-forward, whether that is Kane or someone else.
The debate over who should start out of Bellingham, Foden and Palmer will only intensify after this disjointed display from a group of players who are considered to be the future of England. The former is untouchable, as the Real Madrid dynamo came up clutch once again with the a late equaliser at Wembley, and the latter’s incredible form for Chelsea means he is set to become un-droppable – which leaves Foden as the man fighting for his role.
Against Greece, the Man City star failed to register a single shot, create any chances or complete any dribbles – immediately standing out as the least impactful of the trio who are fighting for their place. It is now 15 months since his last goal or assist for his country.
In theory, Bellingham’s goals and Palmer’s consistent creativity mean England should be able to mitigate for Kane’s absence in the long-term, whenever he does decide to step aside, but this was a reminder that the team needs a focal point.
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Getty Images SportBrighter future than expected
As we enter the beginning of something of a transitional period for England’s attack, with the end of Kane’s international career on the horizon, there is certainly some solace in the fact that life after the captain looks markedly less bleak than it has done in recent years.
Although things rarely play out in the way you expect, Watkins is currently perfectly placed to assume the mantle of being his country’s main marksman as he reaches his peak at Aston Villa – exemplified by replacing Kane in the Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands and scoring the winning goal.
Meanwhile, Solanke seems ready for the stage again having made a big move, and he is starting to find his feet at Tottenham. Like Kane, he is adept at dropping deep to link play and making well-timed bursts into the penalty area.
Outside of the current squad, Liam Delap has finally been given the platform to prove himself in the Premier League and Ipswich are reaping the rewards. The former Man City striker already has four league goals this season and looks capable of plundering plenty more.
When you factor in the goal-scoring contributions of the likes of Bellingham, Palmer and Saka, Kane’s eventual exit from the international scene needn’t be the cataclysmic event it has been played up to be over the years.
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GettyBut don’t write Kane off
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; for now, Kane is here to stay. Barring an incredible ascension by one of those waiting in the wings, England will be planning for Kane to be their No.9 at the next major tournament, the 2026 World Cup in the USA in 18 months’ time.
The Bayern Munich marksman will turn 33 a matter of days after the final in New York, and he will be absolutely determined to go all the way after coming agonisingly close to glory at three separate showpiece events in 2018, 2021 and in Berlin in the summer.
Perhaps lifting the trophy will be enough to convince him to call time on his international career, but otherwise he has offered no suggestion that he plans to step aside. So many of the very best goal-getters down the years – Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, to name but a few – have demonstrated that they can adapt and continue to fill their boots deep into their 30s, and England’s talisman will want to follow suit.
Kane’s time should come to its natural conclusion on his own terms. For now, we should just enjoy him while we have him – there are few better at what he does.
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