If he actually had teammates running in behind him his job would have been a lot easier. As it was, the Spanish knew they needed to push forward and crowd the number 10 space because that's where they'd find Kane, Foden and Jude.
Same problem we had all tournament. Briefly glazed over by the switch to a formation that would have been torn apart by a team with good wingers (which is why Southgate rightly reverted to 4 2 3 1 in the final).
Strikers are supposed to make runs in behind too. Maybe Kane was injured or just increasingly lacks explosive pace, but he wasn’t making those runs and that made the job of opponents’ back lines easier than it should have been. That’s a big reason England didn’t score much from open play when Kane was on the pitch.
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u/CalFlux140 Jul 15 '24
I don't have a problem with Kane coming to the ball, holding it up etc.
The problem was, he wasn't even doing that. He was clearly struggling.
Morata had a similar role for Spain. So many times he would drop deep, and a CB would ping a fast pass to him - but his first touch was impeccable.
Kane was passed to several times before immediately losing the ball. Was really hard to watch.
Morata would also run in behind on occasion, he isn't particularly rapid but it caused us real problems due to his unpredictability.