Former Manchester United and England star Paul Scholes has criticized Harry Kane for dropping into midfield in the World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
Kane is England’s all-time leading goalscorer at World Cups and in all competitions in the national team’s history, but he also likes to drop deep to dictate play.
In this case it looked like the wrong choice as Scholes felt he was trying to do too much and it would have irritated him as a midfielder.
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“If I saw my centre-forward almost going behind me half the time, I wouldn’t want that. I want my centre-forward to play centre-forward. I think that’s midfield leadership as well,” Scholes told The Good, The Bad, and The Football Podcast.
“If it was me, Nicky, or me and Roy (Keane) or whoever was there as a midfielder, we’d be like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ It depends on Elliott Anderson and Declan Rice; they should say, “Get out of here, we need you over there.”
What Harry Kane had to say about England’s defeat at the World Cup
Kane himself touched on the problems in this England team after a 2-1 loss to Argentina on Wednesday night.
Anthony Gordon gave the Three Lions a 1-0 lead, but two late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautor Martinez turned the game around.
Argentina will now play in the final against Spain and there will likely be a lot of people looking for last minute World Cup final tickets for what should be a great spectacle, even if it’s a shame England won’t be in it.
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Discussing what went wrong, Kane said: “We were close, very close to another final, but it wasn’t enough. We’ve given it our all over the last seven weeks and it’s hard to take failure!
“I know expectations are high and rightly so, we’ve been knocking on the door for eight years now, but again the last piece of the puzzle is missing! That’s where we have to go, process it and find a way to get better.”
Is Thomas Tuchel England’s biggest problem?
While Kane may have had some criticism from Scholes and others, there is no doubt that the main man feeling the heat at the moment will be coach of England Thomas Tuchel.
The German tactician defended his tactics, but it seemed he was badly wrong to defend for so long against Argentina.
In particular, Tuchel replaced Gordon with Ezri Konsa and there are reports that the England players were unhappy with his negative approach towards the end of the game.
Former England manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink says he feels it would not have happened under previous manager Gareth Southgate.
“We talk after the game and it’s easy, you know, but I don’t think Garrett would have gone for the back five. I don’t think he would have gone for it 20, 25 minutes before the end of the game,” Hasselbaink said.
“I don’t think Steve Holland would have wanted him to do that. The reason why I think when they played Italy, they played five; they had trouble coming out and all that. I think he would have kept it at four.
“I think he would switch the wide players and still have the energy up front so he can still press up front and still be able to get in behind their defence.”