Roy Keane has expressed his belief that England manager Thomas Tuchel would prefer Harry Kane to maintain his forward position during the World Cup, criticizing Kane’s tendency to play too deep as “madness.”
In England’s 1-0 victory over New Zealand in Tampa, Kane secured the win by heading in a cross from Djed Spence just before halftime. While the goal marked his 79th for England, Keane was quick to analyze Kane’s positioning critically.
Speaking on ITV, the former Manchester United captain emphasized that despite Kane’s exceptional passing skills, England will require him to remain closer to the goal during crucial World Cup moments.
Keane’s comments come as Kane enters the World Cup following an impressive season with Bayern Munich, where he netted 61 goals and provided seven assists across 51 matches.
Keane also pointed out the challenging heat conditions expected during the matches, suggesting that Tuchel would want his key striker positioned as far forward as possible on the field.
Keane noted the searing heat matches are likely to be played at as a factor, while he insisted Tuchel will want the England talisman as high up the field as possible.
Harry Kane has been warned he needs to be sensible with his positioning if England are to stand a chance of success at the World Cup
Roy Keane warned Kane against dropping too deep during the World Cup due to the sweltering heat
‘The whole argument, you don’t mind him dropping in because he has this range of passing when he does drop, but not off the back four,’ Keane said.
‘There was a clip from the first half, maybe it was just a bit of boredom.
‘Come the crunch games, if Harry Kane is getting it off the back four, imagine if you are a defender and seeing Kane getting it off the back four, you are delighted.
‘It is further up the pitch where he causes problems, but not getting it off the back four, that is madness.
‘There is no way the manager will be wanting him to do that when the proper games start.
‘He has done it previously, but he is more experienced, do not go getting it off the back four. To me, that is ridiculous.
‘He’s got to be sensible, we’re talking about the conditions.
‘He doesn’t need to be coming back beyond the halfway line trying to spray balls, there’s enough players who can do that and enough quality, you get yourself in there, you’re the best in the world at this moment in time.
‘If England want to win the big trophy, he’s going to be your main man.’
Keane insisted Kane needs to play closer to the opponent’s goal during the tournament
Kane scored the only goal as England beat New Zealand 1-0 in their first warm-up match
Kane had played only the first half of the warm-up match, with Tuchel opting to change his entire team at half-time against New Zealand.
The England boss admitted post-match that he was happier with his side’s second half performance, suggesting there had been too much ‘freestyle’ from his players in the opening period.
‘I’m not super happy about it. I liked the second half more than the first half.
‘I think we had more bite in the second half, were more aggressive on and off the ball, created a bit more. Some good half chances and some good penetrations into the box.
‘We played more from our positions and that’s why we played with more speed.’
‘The first half we were out of positions and it was a bit too much freestyle.
‘That slowed our game down and made it difficult for counter-press because we were not in the positions that we wanted to be when we started attacking, so that’s basically the story of the match.
‘To put it in context, a lot of our players played the last time together in November, so it’s half a year ago.
‘We have four training sessions together and we mixed the team up completely, so we never played before in these combinations and formation to give everyone 45 minutes.
‘Then you have the conditions, the pitch, it can look like this.’
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