Should England drop Harry Kane?

England are through to the semi-final at Euro 2024 after beating Switzerland on penalties. Despite the victory, Gareth Southgate’s side had familiar problems in their attack, with Harry Kane again struggling to make an impact.

Is there at all a chance that we could see a change for Wednesday’s semi-final against the Netherlands?

Ayo Akinwolere is joined by The Athletic's Oli Kay, Jacob Whitehead and Ahmed Walid to discuss Kane's form and possible tactics for England as they progress in the tournament.

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:30 England vs Switzerland
00:01:40 Can we compare Harry Kane to Ronaldo?
00:04:46 Harry Kane at the Euros
00:09:41 England under Southgate
00:13:28 How do England improve?
00:14:09 Tactics at the Euros
00:15:53 Players in the Netherlands team
00:18:08 Harry Kane or Ivan Toney?
00:20:40 Team’s tactical positionings
00:25:41 France’s fluidity
00:27:18 Mbappe’s form
00:30:26 Alvaro Morata
00:34:55 Link up play tactics at the Euros
00:36:29 Southgate’s possible changes for England vs Netherlands
00:39:08 Netherlands attack
00:40:57 Outro

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#kane #england #euro2024

[Robert.Sheard]

Jacob, say it out loud: Southgate refusing to play Gordon forfeits half the pitch and the opponent can clog everything up defensively. I’ve never seen a more stubborn manager, ignoring an obvious answer to not having anything on the left.

[robbied]

Really enjoyed Oli setting out clealry why Kane is having 0 impact then saying "but I would start him'

[MrMChau]

Tbh Ive accepted Southgate won't change a thing and there's no point even discussing it.

[hungmnatp]

1st half against Switzerland, Saka put the perfect ball into the box and Kane wasn't anywhere near to attack that. Time for Southgate to take gamble on Ivan Toney

[andrewprescott]

A tough one really, he’s obviously carrying a back injury however, he’s influential enough to get important goals . With the system 3421 need a striker to run in behind and hold it up better, he isn’t doing either of those things at the moment, looking at Watkins or Ivan Toni to start might be the brave move that Southgate needs to take .

[crispy_T]

Love kane, absolute goal scoring machine (50 goals this season) i think he may still be carrying the back injury sustained at the tail end of the season. Play him for 60 minutes & let watkins / toney have a run out for the last 30minutes

[SleutherStrode]

Listening to Oliver Kay is like somebody scraping their nails down the ceiling of a bus

[grahamprice]

If he scores one more goal he goes joint top scorer, it has generally been a low scoring tournament. Changing Kane might work, who knows, but we all know Southgate isn't going to drop him in any case. He's arguably the best player in his position in global football, a superb penalty taker, and still dangerous when not playing well.

[George-bisj]

I get what Jacob's saying about Kane, but for the Italy game, and I'm pretty sure he's talking about 'The Thrill in Seville', England didn't have Bellingham or Foden occupying that position. Also, against Spain we played 4-3-3 without a 10, so Kane could drop and ping it to either Rashford or Sterling, who both like to get in behind. I love Kane, but I think he's redundant in this system, you at least need Gordon as well as Saka obvioulsy, in order to get the best out of him.

[kudz]

Kane is top striker, but this guy drops so deep that it’s so easy to mark him out of the game. The lack of mobility is the big issue.

[trevorchapman]

Kane is a known slow starter to any season, where he is expected to not score in August. Coming back from injury we should expect the same.

[haimainjauo]

Should've dropped Southy a few years ago. the team is yet to create more than a few chances for Harry and that's why you're asking this question.

[yingyang]

We had the exact same debate in 2018, when he stunk the game out against Croatia in the semi final at walking pace, same in the CL final against Liverpool

In saying that, Southgate doesn't use him properly, he needs to play in a front 2 like at Spurs or a front 3 like at Bayern - with him being the one that drops deep

[realtalk]

40 mins out a 41 minute podcast and 4 things stand out

1. Nobody mentioning the political aspect of leaving out the England captain if they go on win the title, it's a bad look, similar to Rooney lifting the Europa league.

2 Olie Watkins record against VVD is very impressive including a famous hat trick in the villa 7-2 win

3 history has shown different occasions how a back up striker had a make difference eg Geoff Hurst

4 no mention of Cody Gakpo who has clearly been the best and the most effective forward player the tournament. It's been pretty clear to see stop Gakpo stop the Netherlands.

[katarinala]

Kane has been Englands best player last 5-6 yrs but i agree he doesn’t look the sharpest

[banditbaker]

Kane is clearly struggling to make any impact so far (apart from his goals.
Personally against the Dutch, I would opt for Watkins to utilise his speed against Virgil Van Dyke, but as we all know Southgate will stick with his plan A until it is nearly too late

[zakpullen]

Kane isn't getting service as a striker because he's not getting into the right positions. He's clogging up the areas where Foden/Bellingham are operating. We need someone to run into the box.

[TheCeodoc]

Yes
Yes!
Yes!!!
Yes!!!!
Holding England back because of his selfish desire for records etc.
Would prefer a 100% channel runner than a 5% magical moment has been.

[joeledj]

You should if you want to progress, but Southgate won't because it's what he does.

[richardloach]

To me it's simple. The lack of balance and absence of left sided attacks forces Kane out of position and he is less effective