da poker： Harry Kane has been urged to abandon his “playmaker” role with England, but Alan Shearer is “not worried” about the 63-goal striker.
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Prolific striker likes to drop deepHas resisted that urge at BayernNeeds to do the same at Euro 2024WHAT HAPPENED?
As captain of his country, Kane is eager to be involved as much as possible. That often means dropping deep in search of the ball, with the 30-year-old showing across his time in the Premier League at Tottenham that he can be as effective as a creative No.10 as he is a prolific No.9.
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Kane has often done likewise with England, but has been allowed to stay further forward while plundering 44 goals across his debut campaign at Bayern Munich. Shearer wants to see the Three Lions' all-time leading marksman stick to that approach at Euro 2024 and avoid any temptation to leave the final third.
WHAT SHEARER SAID
Ex-England frontman Shearer has told after seeing Kane endure a tough European Championship opener against Serbia that presented him with limited touches and few sights of the target: “For a long time, Kane’s role for England was similar to the way he often played for Tottenham Hotspur. Go back to the 2018 World Cup and he was coming back to the halfway line to collect the ball and linking play with wide forwards who would hug the touchline and fly forward. That worked, but this is a different England team, and we do not need Kane to be the playmaker now we have got such gifted midfielders behind him. Players like Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold can do that too so, instead, part of Kane’s role is to bring them into the game as much as possible. We will still need him to score goals, of course, but I am not worried about that side of his game either on the back of one difficult match at these Euros.”
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Shearer added on the need for Kane to provide a focal point for England: “Kane only touched the ball once in the first 35 minutes [against Serbia], when we were dominating the game, but he was still providing the focal point England needed up front. That is something he is very good at and it became especially important when we were under pressure in the second half. When he was coming deep to try to help out, there was no-one to hit for an out-ball when we did win it back, and Serbia were very quickly on the attack again. He was better off staying high up the pitch, holding the ball up and protecting it, and winning free-kicks – and he did that well later in the game.”