Harry Kane faces awkward questions over his Euro 2024 final involvement... here's how Gareth Southgate answers them, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
- Kane has struggled in Germany but will again lead England's line against Spain
There would be an unusually large number of happy people if Harry Kane doesn't start against Spain. I can think of 12 in particular and they will all be on the pitch in Berlin on Sunday evening or very close to it.
You will know the names of those it might delight the most. But we can list them here — Rodri, Nacho, Alex Grimaldo, Aymeric Laporte, Jesus Navas, David Raya, Marc Cucurella, Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino, Alvaro Morata, Joselu and Ayoze Perez. They all have something in common.
We could put Ferran Torres in there as well, but his place in this discussion is a little different. He doesn't have their scar tissue or the same place in the victims' roll call, because he hasn't been in a squad when Kane has scored against his team. All he witnessed was an assist and one hell of a show.
That was November 2020, so Covid football and empty grounds. It finished Tottenham 2 Manchester City 0 and Spurs went top of the table. In Mail Sport's player ratings, we called Kane 'outstanding' that day and he was.
The second goal caught some attention, because Kane went on a 25-yard run up the middle and fed Giovani Lo Celso, but it was the first that offered more information and maybe caused a few awkward conversations. It was one of those where he was involved but not involved. He didn't finish the move, he didn't even touch the ball in the build-up, but he made the space with one of those retreats he has made so often this summer.
Harry Kane has struggled at Euro 2024 in Germany but will lead England's line again in the final
He had had success against a number of Spain's current team before, including Rodri
Gareth Southgate hasn't been afraid to substitute him but it would be madness to drop him
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At this European Championship we have taken to calling it a weakness. A symbol of an aimless man. An unfit man. A man drifting. A man away from the action. A man whose removal made the difference against the Netherlands.
But back then, against City in that empty stadium, Torres, Laporte, Rodri and the rest of us were watching the dawn of a key transition in his game. Jose Mourinho was his manager and his impact on Kane, among a small handful who found his presence beneficial, was tremendous — it was Mourinho who truly opened Kane's eyes to his ability to be more than a match-winner. He could be a shaper of matches as well.
And so to the footage, which shows Kane moving away from goal and a plan coming together magnificently. The key point is that Laporte and Ruben Dias were sucked towards him, because who in their right mind would leave Harry Kane unattended? When they went with him, the rest was a poem of attacking play and smart orchestration — into the space vacated by Kane and his chaperones ran Son Heung-min for 1-0. Beautiful.
I wonder if Torres remembers that. I'm fairly sure Laporte and Rodri do, as that's the way of modern football. Every goal is equal to at least two sessions of unflattering video analysis — one for the next training session, one for the return fixture. But then there's the loops those clips run in the mind after certain events. Loops that cover more ground than N'Golo Kante. They cause neuroses. They plant little doubts and ask hard questions: how do you defend against one of the greatest strikers in the history of the game when he is that much more than a scorer? Who picks him up? Which foot do you show him to? Can you ever take an eye off him and are there ever enough eyes for a player who weaves madness in midfield and kills in the box?
So let's go back to the list. Cucurella has some baggage — he has conceded multiple times against Kane's feet and head for Brighton and Chelsea. He has sat through a few of those sessions, those 'Hands up if you know why this happened?' inquiries in the video room. The answer is always the same: Kane happened. Just as he happened to Raya at Brentford and Arsenal. To Olmo at RB Leipzig. To Nacho at Real Madrid. To Laporte at City and Perez at Leicester over and again and all the rest of them.
They could form a support group, a survivors' club, and would fill half the Spanish dressing room with their meetings.
Kane was superb against a Man City side with a number of Spain players in November 2020
He will come up against Aymeric Laporte (right) in one of the key battles on Sunday evening
This Kane is not like the Kane of 2020, but his class is evident and he can show it once again
Of course, we know Kane has not been brilliant in Germany. This Kane is not looking much like the Kane of 2020 or any other sample in his time of goals and havoc.
He has seemed peripheral and there is yet to be a match where the player ratings, in Mail Sport or anywhere else, have described him as outstanding. He hasn't been anything of the sort and that was before his foot was injured against the Netherlands. But he is Harry Kane. And it is a final. And finals are occasions where nerves as much as any other factor can shape a result.
Now here's a question: if you were a Spanish goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, attacker, substitute, coach or fan, who would make you more nervous when the team list is shared? Kane? Or Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins?
I greatly admire the latter two, which pre-dates this tournament but it has been emphasised in the past fortnight or so. They are finishers, to use the new parlance, and they have fulfilled their briefs. Toney had us talking for days about a ballsy, unique way to take a penalty on the big stage and Watkins has pace that Kane never had.
But they haven't put bodies in bags as Kane has. They have the fitness, the sharpness, and in the here and now, they have credentials to start the final. But Kane is an aura and Kane is the brain and Kane is the alpha, the scorer of 406 goals for club and country. He is a heartbeat. A leader. He is the embodiment of a team who have muddled their way to the precipice of sporting greatness on spirit alone.
Ollie Watkins (above) and Ivan Toney have played their parts, but have not done what Kane has
Kane is the embodiment of a team who have stumbled their way to the final on spirit alone
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England's toil has been Kane's toil. They have reached a final at 70 per cent of their potential; he is jointly the top scorer and been a shadow of himself. But here they are and here he is, the man who leads the others off the bus and the captain who faced a 45-minute press conference at the height of the noise about how bleak it was. He stood up for them. He argued for them when Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer had their say and he didn't miss.
Shrewder judges than me say that isn't enough and Graeme Souness is shrewder than almost anyone in this silly game. But no one ever made much money betting against Kane across the past decade.
If you're an England international, you want to look over and see Harry Kane next to you in Berlin. If you are an England international, you don't see his runs into deep positions and see an aimless meander. If you are an England international, you will always want the one good chance to fall to the wrecking ball who has put more of them away than anyone who has ever worn the shirt, Shearer and Lineker included.
If you are Spanish, you hope the foot under that boot is a pulped mess. Or better still that Gareth Southgate breaks from character long enough to have a moment of utter madness when he fills in his team sheet.
