Thomas Tuchel has said England will not produce “another Harry Kane”, acknowledging that replacing his captain when the time comes is a problem without an obvious answer.
Kane extended his own England scoring record with his 87th goal for the Three Lions in Tuesday’s game against the Czech Republic. The 33-year-old Bayern Munich forward is also now just two appearances away from equalling Peter Shilton’s 125 caps, moving him closer to becoming the most capped England player of all time. His form has been exceptional, with 73 goals for club and country last season putting him firmly in the conversation as a possible Ballon d’Or winner.
“You will not get another Harry Kane, first of all,” Tuchel said. “He is the first one to push everyone and that is his mindset and he became a very, very hardworking forward on top of his finishing skills. He is a complete package.”
Finding a suitable back-up for Kane has been a long-standing issue for England. Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney filled that role at the past two major tournaments, but the Saudi Arabia-based pair are also in their thirties and were overlooked for the current batch of Nations League fixtures. Dominic Calvert-Lewin is in the squad but is approaching his 30th birthday, while Liam Delap is currently the only English centre forward under the age of 27 to have scored a Champions League goal.
In Prague, Tuchel supplemented his striking options by bringing on Jude Bellingham and deploying the Real Madrid player in a more advanced role than his usual midfield position. “We look for different options and solutions. We finished the game with Jude up front as a number nine,” Tuchel said. “There will be someone else, but it will not be Harry or a copy of Harry. We will find a solution when it comes to it but maybe not me. It might be another 10 years.”
Tuchel explained that he sees value in the Bellingham experiment. “I like him as a nine,” he added. “Then he can contribute to both sides and overload the sides and doesn’t affect so much of the balance. We found a bit of a new role for him in the last match, as a central 10, so he can go to both sides and it is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3 to have Harry and Jude closer together and to give them a chance to overload both sides. We are working on that. He is a natural goalscorer and he has the hunger to be on the scoreboard. He wants to be there and have the decisive action, so it makes not a huge difference if he plays as a nine or a 10.”