On at the present time 11 years in the past, Harry Kane got here on as an alternative to Wayne Rooney at Wembley to make his England debut towards Lithuania. Eighty seconds later, he was wheeling off to have a good time scoring his first England objective.
Since then, Kane has gone on to be England’s all-time main scorer with 78 targets, and the only most vital participant for his nation for a decade. Most really feel that England can’t win the World Cup without him match and firing.
But Thomas Tuchel has to put together for a possible nightmare situation the place Kane is not out there. Injury, suspension, warmth exhaustion – all are potential explanation why Kane might be KO’d.
So what’s the plan B up high? Who is Kane’s pure understudy? At Wembley towards Uruguay on Friday, within the penultimate pleasant earlier than the England boss has to choose his World Cup squad, alternative knocks for the 2 Dominics.
“It’s important the two of them understand it’s a big chance to be in camp without Harry,” Tuchel mentioned of Solanke and Calvert-Lewin. “To compete for an actual likelihood to begin and get good high quality minutes.
“Harry is Harry, our captain. A starter for us. The question is, if we are chasing a result do we really take Harry off? When is there a chance to be a sub for Harry? Or do we look for someone who will play with Harry? Or someone who is a good penalty taker? These are the questions we have to answer.”
The exhausting fact is that with Kane turning 33 a fortnight after the World Cup ultimate, and a packed workload for Bayern Munich main up to the match, he’ll categorically not give you the chance to play 90 minutes for a potential eight matches within the North American warmth and humidity.
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Tuchel has recognised he has to defend his prized asset in any respect prices – evidenced by the additional 5 days he has given him to relaxation this week, together with 10 different high-impact gamers.
Marcus Rashford, Phil Foden and Jarrod Bowen can all do a job as a No 9 in Kane’s absence, however Tuchel has been clear that he desires one other pure striker as a part of his match squad. When I requested him in November whether or not he may take solely Kane to the World Cup as his specialist striker, he answered fairly categorically that he doubted it, as a result of he would not really feel his squad had the best “balance”.
It seems Tuchel has narrowed his options down to three potential gamers: Ollie Watkins, Solanke and Calvert-Lewin.
Watkins has been ignored of this squad due to his collapse in confidence, which has seen him rating solely two Premier League targets since January 3. He does although have credit score within the financial institution, having performed a key function for England at varied instances, not least within the Euros semi-final with the late winner towards the Netherlands two summers in the past.
Solanke has not performed for his nation since Lee Carsley’s spell as caretaker supervisor. His season has been affected by damage, however a goalscoring return of six in 17 appearances in all competitions is not too dangerous, contemplating Tottenham’s woeful kind.
Calvert-Lewin’s England exile has been even longer. He hasn’t represented his nation for the reason that quarter-finals of Euro 2020, when he got here off the bench to substitute Kane towards Ukraine. Ten targets in 27 video games for Leeds this season have confirmed what he can do when he is match and has a run of video games.
It is critical that Tuchel talked about penalties when speaking of Kane’s potential substitute. It is a key consideration, not solely throughout the 90 minutes of World Cup matches, but additionally for any shoot-outs which will come within the knockout levels.
It appears fairly clear that Ivan Toney shouldn’t be in Tuchel’s plans proper now, and so his subsequent finest penalty taker – apart from Kane – is not even a striker. Cole Palmer’s penalty success price is excellent and could also be an vital think about his battle with the opposite No 10s at England’s disposal.
As for the three back-up strikers at present in Tuchel’s eye-line, there’s little to select between them from 12 yards; and in reality, none of them has put their hand up as penalty specialist.
So what of their different attributes? Again, the statistics recommend there’s a large fall-off when put next to captain Kane.
It is evident Tuchel has an issue. Arguably, his greatest downside with the World Cup in thoughts. Kane represents England’s greatest power, however without him, it seems like England’s greatest weak point.
