David Pleat has been manager, director of football and recruitment consultant at Tottenham and has seen Harry Kane’s development up close. He offers his expert analysis on how England can get the best out of their captain. 

Pessimism should dissipate during the next round of games. The less fancied teams have set up with deep defences and looked to counter. That fewer goals have been scored in groups like England’s where Serbia and Slovenia played this way is not surprising.

There has been little space behind a quick retreating group of players making little attempt to win the ball back earlier by pressing high. Teams like France and Belgium have been unable to produce their undoubted flair against such opposition.

England too. Knock-out football will produce a completely different mind-set and I have no doubt our talented players will show their true worth. Retreating defences made it difficult and England’s forward players with little space to run into have been stifled in the midfield mash.

This has worked against Harry Kane. I have seen him progress since his early days on loan at Millwall, through countless academy games and early Under-21 games where he forged a brilliant partnership with Ryan Mason, now a senior coach at Tottenham.

Harry Kane has struggled to make his mark on Euro 2024, scoring just once in the group stage

As he developed, Kane proved he didn’t need an out-and-out player alongside him. His game has become both as a schemer and a scorer, a mixture of a nine and a 10 in modern terminology.

His wonderful skill was dropping off his marker into a deeper area, dragging the centre back away from goal and leaving spaces for a late midfield runner. For a time, Dele Alli was the man at Spurs, a box-to-box forward who anticipated and recognised the time and space to run into.

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How many times did we see the England captain join play in midfield and switch the play with a sweep of his right foot? At times, it seemed to me as if he was as if he was doing it blindfolded.

Kane would then make his way into the box and on most occasions get into a goalscoring position. It is a good deal easier to find a little pocket of space in front of goal when you arrive late.

He went on to develop a similar understanding with Heung-min Son who would use his pace from the left flank to attack the same spaces.

This is still Kane’s game. That’s the way he likes to play and that’s the way to get the best out of him. Not up front with his back to the goal. There are other ways of playing.

He is not a centre-forward like Alan Shearer or Nat Lofthouse or Tommy Taylor from yesteryear. He is closer to Kai Havertz or Don Revie, Alfredo di Stefano or Nandor Hidegkuti from the past.

Arsenal had more natural centre forwards in the squad last season, such as Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah but found they were more effective with Havertz dropping deep and linking play, and they had no have trouble finding the net. They scored 91 goals in the Premier League.

The Champions League final in 2019 has stuck in my mind as a good example of what happens when Kane operates purely as a front man, up against Virgil van Dijk who had a comfortable 90 minutes.

His instinct is to join areas where he can provide an overload. Often that’s in midfield but equally he can also produce from wide. Nobody hits a faster crossed ball from an advanced position than he does.

The problem at present is that Kane is dropping into what is an already congested area with no opportunity of delivering a long, direct pass to another front man. If he is to play at his best, we need a runner to capitalise on the spaces he creates when he drops deep and pulls defenders out of position.

It would be fascinating to see the effect if someone like Ollie Watkins were to be given the number nine role and Kane allowed to play his normal game, linking midfield.

It might be worth taking a chance. Watkins is a goalscorer and goalscoring is sure to be vital in the coming knock-out games. The Aston Villa man will make forward runs, getting behind defenders in more open games and England would gain greater goal potential. 

If not Watkins, one of the current midfielders must be prepared to make those runs behind opposition defences. That could be Jude Bellingham, he is capable although he would need to change the way he is playing, where he wants to be involved in everything.

Whatever combination England play, the games will open up and opponents will attack us.

But Kane needs to play his game.

Harry dropping deep DOES work… here’s how Three Lions can prosper 

If England want the perfect blueprint for how to use Harry Kane, just look at where he played for Tottenham. In this match against Southampton in 2020, he dropped deep to set up FOUR goals for Son Heung-min, who regularly moved into a more advanced position to receive the balls from Kane. 

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