How do England get Kane in the game?
Looking in to how England can activate Harry Kane's attacking threat
England are through to the Quarter Finals of Euro 2020, and despite being defensively resolute they are yet to fire on all cylinders in attack.
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling has been their main source of goals up front, with three goals from his four appearances.
England have attacking depth as strong as any other nation, with players such as Jadon Sancho, Jack Grealish, Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden reduced to substitute positions in recent games.
Captain Harry Kane is a guaranteed starter for the Three Lions, but is yet to hit his full potential thus far.
Kane scored his first goal of the tournament to seal a 2-0 victory against Germany, with a lovely, pinpoint header that proved he only needs one chance to score a goal, scoring from his only shot of the game.
After a long and tiresome season with Tottenham, Kane appears lethargic in his movement, and the numbers show he is struggling to find the ball.
30 minutes into England’s match against Germany, Kane had only managed to touch the ball twice, less than any player on the pitch including both goalkeepers.
Kane completed 20 passes throughout the entire 90 minutes, and only completed 11 passes in his 74 minutes against Scotland.
So why is Kane struggling to find the ball?
Lets have a look at the Germany game, where the answer is down to England’s formation and strategy.
With manager Gareth Southgate deploying three central defenders behind two defensive midfielders, England are playing without a midfielder who is looking to progress the ball through the center of the pitch, and the defensive-first approach is leaving Kane strandard up front.
On the ball, England will look to pass around their defense before spreading wide to their wing-backs or wide attackers.
In this example, Declan Rice receives the ball with an abundance of space ahead of him.
England’s wing-backs and wide attackers are holding the width, Rice’s midfield partner Kalvin Phillips is occupying a cautious position in midfied, while Kane is isolated and occupied up front.
Rice carries the ball up the pitch, however curves his run towards left-back Luke Shaw, which doesn’t present Kane an option to be involved in the attacking build up.
There are two options of how to activate Kane here.
With so much space in midfield, a midfielder such as Phillips (capable of making attacking and driving runs forward, as we saw against Croatia for his assist to Sterling) should be looking to penetrate through the middle of the pitch, progressing the ball centrally and activating Kane in the process.
Kane can then receive the ball, and either look to pass wide, or play in one of his wingers making a dangerous run.
The other option here is for Kane is to drop deeper in to midfield while Rice progresses, utilizing the vacant space to receive the ball, and allowing him time to use the excellent range of passing he loves to express at Tottenham.
By dropping in to midfield, Kane would draw his opposition center-back out of position, providing space for Sterling and Bukayo Saka to test Germany’s out-of-position defensive line.
International football can be a difficult period to link and gel with your teammates instantly, as there is such limited time to train together and learn the ideas and strategy that would ordinarily be taught across weeks of club football.
By looking for progressive passing through central midfield, paired with Kane dropping into the vacant space between his oppositions’ defense and defensive midfielders, England can find a solution to help Kane receive the ball more often, and utilize his attacking threat.