Few top sides play with two up front these days. Some prefer to use a false 9. At Euro 2024, there have been suggestions that no task in football is more thankless than having to be Harry Kane’s back-up. England’s captain always starts.
Gareth Southgate has not drawn on the memory of Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham’s partnership at Euro 96. His preference is to have Kane leading the line on his own, with Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka supporting him from attacking midfield.
Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins, England’s reserve forwards, have had to spend a lot of time imagining what it would be like to play alongside Kane, feed off his through balls and rough defenders up the old-fashioned way.
But last Sunday, with England seconds away from going out to Slovakia in the last 16, Southgate decided to try something different. There were 94 minutes on the clock when Toney came on; the Brentford striker, was by his manager’s admission, not particularly impressed to be introduced at that stage. He was desperate for more time to save England.
But when Kyle Walker chucked in a long throw and Marc Guéhi headed it on, Toney was there to make his presence felt by occupying Slovakia’s defenders. Pinned back, they could not stop Bellingham from doing something that Toney succinctly describes as “Jude doing Jude things”.
The attention, naturally, was on the overhead kick. But there was another element to England’s comeback. Toney threw Slovakia off course. His physicality ruffled them. He held the ball up, brought teammates into play and cleverly created Kane’s winner in extra time.
It is a shame to hear that England have not trained much with a front two. Their attack has spluttered. There is an argument that pairing Kane with Toney or Watkins could give them a fresher feel in their quarter-final against Switzerland on Saturday.
“I feel like you just put yourself about when there’s two up front,” Toney said. “It gives the opposition more to think about. I’d knock it back to H and he could just pick up seconds.”
Toney is big on positive thinking. “There’s a guy called Michael Caulfield at Brentford who is always talking about controlling your emotions,” he said. Toney admits that he was annoyed with Southgate. “In that moment it was time to control your emotions,” he said. “I was annoyed but there was still 30 minutes to play. You’ve got to focus.”
The 28-year-old was full of good humour. “I think my face said it all,” Toney said, smiling as he explained how Southgate could tell that he was in a bad mood. “Everything is sorted now. We’re friends!”
Toney is desperate to leave his mark on the Euros. “You’re excited to come out to a tournament,” he said. “Everybody wants to play, not just myself. In the dying moments, it’s like: ‘When am I going to come on?’ You’re looking at the clock thinking: ‘Now, now.’ The time wasn’t coming and then it came in the dying moments.
“I have seen it plenty of times when you’re on the touchline ready to come on and the ball doesn’t go out and the final whistle goes. But if I wasn’t annoyed sitting on the bench, then I see it as you wouldn’t have the right attitude and don’t really want to play football. When I came on to the pitch you have to stay focused and change your mindset.
“It was eye-opening that you could be going home any minute. The relief after in the dressing room was: ‘Right, boys, it’s time to kick on.’ I think we’ve got the character and the quality of players to do so. Hopefully we can do that now.”
Toney insisted that he always believed that England would score. “There’ll always be one big chance,” he said. “You saw it in the Turkey game, one of the Austria players had a header in the dying moments and the keeper pulled off a magnificent save. It’s having that belief. If you have that going into the final moments a chance will fall to someone. Then it’s up to you to take it.”
Toney will back himself if the ball falls his way. He is not afraid to take a penalty if England go to a shootout. The question, though, is how much Southgate is prepared to use him. England could catch Switzerland out by drawing on tactics that were supposed to have been consigned to the past.
