The form of Harry Kane is a big talking point for England ahead of their Euro 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands, so Gary Neville has predicted how Gareth Southgate will address the situation.
Kane went into the European Championship on the back of his highest-scoring season to date at club level. After joining Bayern Munich from Tottenham, the striker scored 44 goals across all competitions.
At the Euros, though, Kane hasn’t quite hit his usual levels. He scored against Denmark in the group stage and in extra time of the last-16 win over Slovakia, but drew a blank in the quarter-final game against Switzerland on Saturday.
Kane was unable to complete the game, which went to a penalty shootout that England won 5-3. In fact, before his exit in extra time, he hadn’t managed a single shot on target, and had fewer touches than any other starting player on either side.
Some have been wondering if the England captain still deserves his starting place, especially with capable deputies like Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins present in the squad.
Delivering his take on the situation, Sky Sports pundit Neville has explained why he thinks Southgate will stick with Kane, who has been a victim of poor service.
“Gareth will stick with him,” Neville said. “I think that we’ve called for changes, many of us have called for changes.
“I think changing the shape was quite a significant moment obviously before this game, so I don’t think we can say that Gareth hasn’t made changes.
“When you have to change your shape, or you do change your shape for an opponent, that’s quite a big move. He’s brave enough to do that, and he’s done it before.
“He’s not going to drop Harry Kane. Harry Kane’s one of his leaders, he’s one of the greatest England football players that we’ve ever had.
“There’s no doubt that he’s not been at his absolute best in this tournament but neither have the team. The service into him isn’t great.
“I’m not quite sure where this Harry Kane dropping deep sort of line comes from. I know where it comes from, it’s been there for five, six or seven years watching him play football. I don’t see any difference really in what he’s been doing recently in his football matches for his club.
“This idea that all of a sudden Harry Kane drops deep, it’s partly what I would expect him to do, just sort of stay high, in between those two centre-backs, and then just drop in a little bit to try and sort of draw some of those centre-backs in to allow the runners to go back in behind. That’s what he’s been doing for years.
“But in terms of the actual form, he doesn’t look himself, he doesn’t look as sharp when the ball’s played into him in and around the box. He doesn’t seem to be able to get his touch and his shot off like he ordinarily would do.
Only reason to drop Kane cited
“But he isn’t going to be dropped, unless he’s injured obviously.
“He went off yesterday. Before that incident where he fell into Gareth Southgate, into the actual dugout, I thought I saw him sort of limping. Maybe it was cramp in the middle of the pitch, so I think there was an issue with him.
“If that stopped him playing, or if there was a calf muscle injury or something like that that we’ve not probably heard about, then I’d say obviously that that will be a problem, but it would need that for him to be left out of this team.”
Kane is the most-capped member of England’s Euro 2024 squad; the quarter-final against Switzerland was his 96th outing for his country, for whom he is the all-time record scorer with 65 goals (a whole 25 more than the rest of the squad combined).