Ollie Watkins

[Dave]

I can see some of the argument Bronte is making but as he so often does it's really heavy-handed and biased and has completely the wrong conclusion. We don't need a false 9, our biggest problem for years has been that all of our best players want to play in the same 'half-spaces' where they're not quite a winger or a 10 or a striker but sort of do a bit of everything. Grealish, Foden, Saka, Bellingham, Palmer and more recently Rogers and Gordon all do their best work in those gaps.

For that to work you need a striker who is moving defenders away from those spaces but Kane was allowed to drift into them, which is why so many teams managed to stifle us and we ended up relying on set pieces or individual bits of magic too often. Watkins fixes that because he gets right up onto the shoulder of defenders and runs them into areas they don't want to be (it's the same reason he's so important to how we play) but Bowen wouldn't do that.

This isn't to say that Kane isn't a top striker with a great tournament record though, just that I think we'd have benefitted from him more if Southgate had been able to get him to stop drifting so deep where he wasn't needed.

Yup, all of that.

I would guess that Tuchel's plan is to use Kane exactly as Bayern use him and try and work out who the England equivalents of Diaz / Musiala / Olise are, and ask them to play as closely to what they do as they can manage. Which to me probably feels like Gordon / Palmer / Saka, but if he wants to encourage a runner from the middle to go beyond Kane, that's probably Rogers not Palmer.

[chrisw1]

Kane is a wonderful player, but I agree with above.

As he's got older he's seemed to want to become this 'all-round' player, dropping deeper and at times even trying to be a playmaker as deep as the half-way line.  It's a bit self-indulgent really.  The truth is that he's really good at it, but it isn't necessarily what's best for the team.  I think with the quality of players we have (and have had at recent tournaments), we would have been a far better team if he had more positional discipline.   

[cdbearsfan]

A "far better team" than one that makes two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in its last four tournaments, really?

I see Villa fans turning into entitled Arsenal-style lunatics every international break is still a thing.

[SamTheMouse]

This isn't to say that Kane isn't a top striker with a great tournament record though, just that I think we'd have benefitted from him more if Southgate had been able to get him to stop drifting so deep where he wasn't needed.

Yup, all of that.

I would guess that Tuchel's plan is to use Kane exactly as Bayern use him and try and work out who the England equivalents of Diaz / Musiala / Olise are, and ask them to play as closely to what they do as they can manage. Which to me probably feels like Gordon / Palmer / Saka, but if he wants to encourage a runner from the middle to go beyond Kane, that's probably Rogers not Palmer.

I've watched a fair few highlights of Kane for Bayern, and he's sensationally good at what he does. Obviously he's scoring for fun, but the impressive thing is just how many of his goals come at the end of moves that he himself has started in his own half.

As Dave rightly notes, he needs willing runners to do that.

[Ian.]

Argentina won the World Cup with an ageing Messi who didn’t need to be all over the pitch. The rest of the team all worked really hard around him.

Kanes that’s good a striker and we do have some really good footballers who could do the same and we should be capable of winning the tournament.

[German James]

A "far better team" than one that makes loses two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in its last four tournaments, really?

Yes.

[PeterWithesShin]

Kane is a fantastic player, the best English striker in my time. And quite possibly the best English player full stop. He's always dropped deep, it's not something he started to do recently.

[chrisw1]

A "far better team" than one that makes two finals, a semi-final and a quarter-final in its last four tournaments, really?

I see Villa fans turning into entitled Arsenal-style lunatics every international break is still a thing.

Well, we've lost to the first good team we've played in every tournament, so yeah.

[cdbearsfan]

There it is, there's the weird deluded England arrogance that dismisses everyone else as being no good.

[Dante Lavelli]

I can see some of the argument Bronte is making but as he so often does it's really heavy-handed and biased and has completely the wrong conclusion. We don't need a false 9, our biggest problem for years has been that all of our best players want to play in the same 'half-spaces' where they're not quite a winger or a 10 or a striker but sort of do a bit of everything. Grealish, Foden, Saka, Bellingham, Palmer and more recently Rogers and Gordon all do their best work in those gaps.

For that to work you need a striker who is moving defenders away from those spaces but Kane was allowed to drift into them, which is why so many teams managed to stifle us and we ended up relying on set pieces or individual bits of magic too often. Watkins fixes that because he gets right up onto the shoulder of defenders and runs them into areas they don't want to be (it's the same reason he's so important to how we play) but Bowen wouldn't do that.

This isn't to say that Kane isn't a top striker with a great tournament record though, just that I think we'd have benefitted from him more if Southgate had been able to get him to stop drifting so deep where he wasn't needed.

That's spot on in my opinion.  I'm not suggesting we revitalize Sterling but he used to play on the last defenders' shoulder and threaten the space behind the defense (as Kane dragged them the other way).  In theory, Saka might be a good fit - he has the pace - but he hasn't shown much inclination to date. 

[PeterWithesShin]

There it is, there's the weird deluded England arrogance that dismisses everyone else as being no good.

We are better than everyone else though. At everything. Ever.

[Sexual Ealing]

Yes, with your undressed salads and and high speed railways you are an example to the world.

[DB]

Yes, with your undressed salads and and high speed railways you are an example to the world.

I think the U.S. beats us on high-speed rail....and they don't eat salads.

[cdbearsfan]

They do, I've seen it in Fawlty Towers.

[PeterWithesShin]

Americans are disqualified from being the best because of how they make a cup of tea.