For Harry Kane, it has always been about peaking at the right time in tournaments – in other words, the knockout rounds. The England captain has suggested previously that he might have gone too soon at the 2018 World Cup, lighting up the group stage with five goals and then, in his own words, not having “the best performances in the quarters and semis”.
As he finds himself at the centre of the storm that threatens to engulf England at Euro 2024, cast as the face of the desperately disappointing 1-1 draw against Denmark, the first thing to say is that Kane has been here before. The next is to remember how he responded.
This was a day for Kane to take the stage, to project his self-belief, to address the many issues that are in the air – his form and fitness, the balance of the team, their ability to press cohesively, how they are handling the criticism from the former players on TV.
Kane wanted to look forward, to England’s final group game against Slovenia on Tuesday night. But to do so, it was instructive for him to go back; to the previous two tournaments, especially Euro 2020.
Kane brought up a couple of analogies from other sports – the boxer sizing up his opponent early on, the golfer who does not want to play himself out of a major in the first round. It was plain to see how they applied to him. And there was reassurance to be had in how he told it.
Remember the last European Championship? Kane was poor in the first two games and below his best in the third. He not only failed to score, he managed one shot on target. There was plenty made about his substitution in game two – the 0-0 draw against Scotland. At the 2022 World Cup, he again failed to score in the group games. There was criticism of his performance in the second tie – the 0-0 draw against USA.
The parallels are there because Kane was hauled off here against Denmark after a largely ineffective performance. He had been peripheral in the opening tie – the 1-0 victory against Serbia. But if Kane did score against Denmark, allowing him to say that “it’s a bonus to be one goal ahead”, what he wanted to stress was how he had grown into the previous two tournaments.
Kane found his groove and goals in the knockout ties – four at the European Championship, two at the World Cup, even if that ended in personal disaster with the penalty miss against France. It is going to be fine, Kane said. For him and the team.
“Those past experiences in tournaments can be really helpful,” Kane said. “I try and use them. A lot of players who have been here for a while do the same and we’ve got a responsibility to share that with the others. The bottom line is what really matters is where you finish. No one is going to remember the 1-1 draw against Denmark if we go on and win it.
“It’s just understanding not to get too carried away if you are winning games 3-0 and don’t get too down if you are playing like we’ve been playing so far. It’s about pushing on and finding a way to get to the knockout stage. Once we are there it’s knockout football. It’s ours to take.”
Does Kane still believe that England can win? “We absolutely believe that,” he said. “It’s always a hard one. You can win the first two games 3-0 and get carried away. Then you come up against some adversity in the first knockout game and you’re out. I don’t think it is a bad thing to go through a bit of a tough time to begin with. It widens the focus and makes you realise you can be a bad game away from being out.”
Kane’s focus has never let him down. And he insists that his fitness is not about to do so, either, despite the impression he has not been 100% sharp. After a back injury at the end of the domestic season with Bayern Munich, the Serbia game was the first time he had completed 90 minutes since 4 May. Again, it is about feeling his way towards his peak, although he made the point that he felt “as fit as I have all season”. Alert: he always says this.
Kane disputes the notion that his physical levels were a part of the reason for England’s uncoordinated press against Denmark. It was one that Gareth Southgate had pushed, albeit he did not name Kane. Then again, when a manager talks about a problem with the high press, it is only natural that people look at the player at the tip of the formation.
To Kane, it was a structural issue. With three centre-halves, Denmark had an extra man in the buildup and he noted they also “dropped midfielders into that”. So did Serbia with a similar system.
“Playing against the back three in both games caused us a bit of confusion on the pitch,” Kane said. “We’d prepared before the game. But then I just think there were certain things where we couldn’t quite get the pressure that we wanted and we weren’t 100% sure about when to go. And when the momentum goes against you, you struggle to get it back. We weren’t great with the ball, which led to feeling like you’re just running and constantly running. It was tough to turn that momentum around.”
Happily, Slovenia play 4-4-2, although they would perhaps be wise to switch to a back three. What Kane made clear was the need for England to show more “positional discipline” in possession. It has felt as if he, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden have wanted to occupy the same spaces in between the lines but Kane said there was no problem with them playing together. The thing so far has been the positioning of the whole team.
“When we look back at the games maybe there are times where we were a bit too deep,” Kane said. “Not just us [three] … over the pitch where we had too many numbers behind their press or block. We then found it very hard to progress up the pitch.”
