On Thursday, as England take on the Netherlands in the semi-final of the Nations League, Gareth Southgate faces the same dilemma Mauricio Pochettino did in the Champions League final on Saturday: does he play Harry Kane?
Pochettino found himself in an almost impossible position. Whatever he did with Kane, if Tottenham lost, that decision was bound to be criticised. Kane didn’t play well, but then neither did anybody else in a weirdly disjointed game. He was physically dominated by Virgil van Dijk, but then a lot of players are – although that is a concern given he will be facing Van Dijk again in Porto. Certainly, there was no clear evidence he was still feeling the effects of his ankle injury; the decision to start him wasn’t an obviously flawed one as, say, Diego Simeone starting Diego Costa in the 2014 final was, when the forward was forced off after just nine minutes.
Dropping deep, in fact, Kane linked play relatively well. Whatever doubts there may about his performance, it was a couple of muffed touches by Son Heung-min and a strangely anonymous performance from Dele Alli, plus the correct but unfortunate penalty decision, that ended up costing Tottenham.
TOTTENHAM XI v Liverpool: Lloris (C), Trippier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose, Winks, Sissoko, Eriksen, Dele, Son, Kane.
Harry Kane starts for Spurs in his first appearance since April #CitiSports pic.twitter.com/CLsDOZ1iXM
— CitiNewsroom (@Citi973) June 1, 2019
Although Spurs didn’t have a shot on target until the 72nd minute in Madrid, they did create a number of decent opportunities, two-on-two and three-on-three breaks, that probably should have yielded better chances that they did. Kane’s role in drawing defenders into positions they didn’t want to be in was key to that, even if there were also moments when he looked sluggish, as he often does when returning from injury.
Southgate, surely, will select Kane, if only because he is so vital to the 4-3-3 that has elevated England from the honest toilers of the World Cup to a genuinely thrilling side that, in that first half away to Spain, looked capable of actually challenging for major trophies. He is an unusual player, one whose range of attributes make it a little difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes him so effective.
️ #OTD in 2015, @HKane scored his first @England goal
His record since:
37 caps
⚽️ 22 goals#EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/fLNsBpWBUG— UEFA EURO 2020 (@UEFAEURO) March 27, 2019
He is not especially quick, not especially tall, not especially technically gifted… he does not fit into any of usual categories of centre-forward. He’s just good: a complete player who can score all types of goal, who has an innate game intelligence and, perhaps most importantly, an icy ruthlessness in front of goal. Nobody is perfect from the spot, but who was the last England player who looked so likely to score a penalty at the start of his run-up?
For the 4-3-3, that is ideal. Kane can play as the pivot, battering in to defenders, looking to win headers and get on the end of crosses, but he can also drop off, as he did so effectively against Spain, creating space for the wide forwards to run beyond him. Given the pace and invention of England’s wide players – perm two from Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho – that is just as important as the more eye-catching parts of the job.
Perhaps Kane isn’t quite match fit but then, who is at this point? Kane at least made it through a gruelling 90 minutes in Madrid and, while it’s absurd to think the Champions League final should be a match in which somebody is proving their fitness, that’s effectively what it did for him.
Harry Kane: "For me, it's three games, the game on Saturday and then the England games. I’m ready and I'm fully fit."
— Football Tweet (@Football__Tweet) May 28, 2019
Rashford and Callum Wilson, the other centre-forward in the squad, last played a game on the final day of the league season, 25 days before the Nations League game (and it’s not even that he finished the season in anything approaching good form). The City players at least play in the FA Cup final six days later, as did Sancho for Borussia Dortmund, but rustiness could be a major factor in the Nations League, and all the more so when there haven’t even been any warm-up friendlies, let alone a group stage for players to feel their way back into form.
In that sense, England should benefit from having had so many players – Kane, Alli, Danny Rose, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson – start the Champions League final, as well as having Ross Barkley, Eric Dier and Joe Gomez involved in some way in the two European finals.
That’s the nature of the Nations League: just as the group stage was short and sharp so that every game mattered, so the finals will be done in the space of five days. There’s no room for throat-clearing, so chance to recover from an early slip. Hitting the ground running is essential and that means Kane has to play from the start on Thursday.
A £10 bet on Kane to score and England to win returns £40
