Gary Cahill wants England to rely less on Harry Kane
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola memorably labelled Tottenham “that Harry Kane team” last weekend after the striker scored twice against Huddersfield for his club.
On Thursday it was Kane again, named as England’s captain by coach Gareth Southgate, who led from the front, this time for his country, with the goal that won the game against Slovenia in injury time at Wembley, after a turgid display.
It was Kane’s 14th goal in nine games for club and country, and the 24-year-old’s fitness and form are crucial to any hopes England might have of success in the finals in Russia next summer.
But Chelsea defender Cahill warned: “He has been fantastic for us, but you don’t to go into a tournament with everything on Harry Kane.
“We want Harry to be in fantastic form, but we want everyone to contribute. Going into the tournament we want everyone to have the kind of confidence he is showing at the minute. The fearless mentality. That’s the way he is at the minute.
I see Harry being one of the best in the world in terms of form. He’s at a fantastic age and his finishing is unbelievable
Gary Cahill on Kane
“At this moment in time I see Harry being one of the best in the world in terms of form. He’s at a fantastic age and his finishing is unbelievable.
“He’s in great form and he must be gushing with confidence. He must feel like he’s going to score every time he takes the pitch. Not even one, it’s like, ‘How many am I going to get today?’ He must have that kind of mentality.
“But every good team has people who contribute all over the pitch.”
Southgate’s side struggled woefully at Wembley against a Slovenia team set up to defend and hit them on the break, and lacked the ability to kill teams off.
But Cahill insisted: “Those are things we can learn. We’ve done the job we had to do. We’ve qualified, which is the most important thing.
“Now we have to really see how we can compete against these big teams. And I don’t mean in November when we play Germany and Brazil in friendlies, if we win or lose two games and everyone gets carried away. These are vital games for us to learn in.
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“Of course you want the fans on side. You want the whole country to be behind the team. But this is a young team.
“If you look at the last time we won anything for England it was a long, long time ago. So naturally the fans don’t expect. Sooner or later England are going to win a competition, whether it’s now or in ten or 25 years. But it’s going to happen and when it does I’m sure it will absolutely huge.
“Positivity is the way. Sometimes as players we come off the back of games which are not always great but it’s almost like everyone is waiting with the negativity.
“To get into the latter stages in Russia would be looked on as a success. I’m not saying let’s go out in the latter stages and then it’s been great. We’ve seen when England reached the semis at Euro 1996 when Gareth was there, I remember that as a boy and that felt massive.”
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