England are heading to the World Cup and typically it’s thanks to captain Harry Kane.

Kane scored twice in England’s 5-0 win over Lativa to secure qualification, but how important is he to their chances next summer?

Ayo Akinwolere is joined by The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare and Seb Stafford-Bloor to discuss his importance to England as well as his star quality. Plus, former England goalkeeper Rob Green joins in the conversation to explain what makes Kane so good.

00:00 Intro
01:00 How important is Kane to England?
01:48 Why does Kane draw criticism?
06:20 Does Kane’s professionalism hold him back?
10:43 Gundogan interview teaser
11:05 The importance of winning a trophy
14:01 Rob Green on being in-camp with Kane
17:19 Does Kane slow England down?
21:35 Kane working with fast wingers
25:34 How difficult is it for goalkeepers facing Kane?
30:14 England captain trivia
31:47 Outro

Video Producer: Liam Warburton
Executive Producer: Abi Paterson
Producer: Guy Clarke, John Rogers

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#england #bayern #spurs

32 Comments

  1. Harry Kane is one of the most unappreciated and disrespected footballers in the history of the game. A model professional who is humble, scandal free and humble. England will not produce a goal scorer like this for generations, so give him his flowers while he is still playing.

  2. his prime was definitely 2017, people forget how athletic and everywhere he was. Which would allow him to press and hound players and run past them with the deceiving pace & power he had then

  3. Harry Kane is a really good finisher, like Lewandowski etc. but in my opinion also quite boring as a player (xcept in the British media-hype). There is no Ronaldo, Romario, Benzema, Cantona, Cruyff hidden there.

  4. In terms of his attitude Harry Kane is a bit of a throwback for me. I remember when I was growing up as a kid loving football in the 70s, pretty much all footballers were grounded, taciturn, working class men who never blew their own trumpet at all. They were all very reticent, and were not excitable off the pitch. Footballers then were like plumbers, or chippies, now, especially Prem footballers, they're trying to be more like pop stars, or rappers, ever since the arrival of the Spice hubby, fashion manikin, gender bending illustrated man known as Beckham, more and more players have tried to style themselves on him to the point where the look and culture of Bex has taken over the professional sport amongst players. They're all tattooed head to foot, or Fear of God, Supreme, Travis Scott, Off White, Loui Vuitton, Dior donning nite clubbing chav lads, social media retweeting, diamond earring flashing, attention seeking man childs. Kane is just a mature dad with a strong working class air, the last of a dieing breed as the legions of professional players out there want more than just regular football and a big contract.

  5. He's one of the best strikers in the world. And has been that for several years. People who slag him off fall into one of a few camps – either stupid, a literal child, or someone who knows absolutely nothing about football whatsoever.

  6. We need to appreciate Harry now while we have him. Best footballer in the game right now, in my opinion. His football intelligence, skill, and work ethic, are exceptional. He's a family man with strong values, has plenty of time for fans as well as team mates .. Honestly, he's a benchmark that other footballers would do well to emulate. He stuck with Spurs for such a long time .. that's called loyalty; and it's not a bad thing.

  7. Kane’s critics fall into two categories:

    The first is people who don’t see the game tactically (Kane’s passing and creative awareness is the best we’ve ever seen from a No.9 in the history of football) they see him as only a “finisher” (and thus they think he’s “missing” from big matches when he isn’t always in the box and scoring)

    and people who need to see some step-overs before they really rate a player (Kane has very little flair)

  8. yeah because of him england was knock out of world cup 2022…..did u see the euros performance 2024…..plaing in germany against not so world class defenders really improve him….

  9. Kane is glorious and being a 9 and a half of that quality is special
    Change the narrative : Win the World Cup 🏆
    Destroy the narrative : Score the winning goal ⚽
    Until then, though I appreciate him, I will remember that penalty against France😠

  10. Lebron won 3 rings in Miami and still had to hear about Jordan's 6. People said Brady road the greatness of the Patriots franchise until he won a Superbowl in Tampa. Djokovic was cast in Federer-Nadal's shadow until he closed in on their respective grand slam tallies. These were entirely fair criticisms until disproven. And it's not true that critics don't change their minds. A lot of Messi critics refused to call him the goat because unlike Pele, Zidane, R9, and Maradona, he hadn't won a World Cup. Once he did, most of the the negativity and noise went away. They treat Kane's poor winning record like some kind of inconvenient PR obstacle when the entire point of sports is the thing that eludes him–winning.

  11. I’ve been a Kane fan for years. He’s obviously englands best player. Flowers where it’s due. His best ever self yep but let’s not move goal posts now if you meant he’s best striker 😂

  12. rob green said something clicked in Keyne's game twice by which he meant it was an intangible, then he still ended up trotting out the nonsense cleche that it a about hard work , no its not its talent , loads of players at loads of levels put as much work as Kanye did in but he had the talent to realise his quality with the handwork component of course but its not hard work that makes the difference between Kanye and a good dedicated championship striker

  13. He is massively overated. He has scored 7 in 14 against FIFA ranked top 10 teams. 4 of these goals were penalties, 1 of these goals was the tap in from the Denmark penalty miss so I am not counting this. So he has scored 2 goals against top 10 teams from open play in 14 games. Not to mention the eye test, he did nothinh against Croatia in the WC SF, he did nothing in 2 Euro finals. Quite honestly his work rate at times especially in certain group games was actually shocking. Geoff hurst has at least 3 goals against a FIFA top 10 ranked team, this is the difference. Kane is a good player and posseses world class ball striking,be it shooting or passing however he has no pace, does not hold the ball up, is bad in the air and has a weak mentality especially in big games. Yet he rolls up to England and starts using his status to drop into MF,RB whch damages the shape and tactics of the team as he knows if his limitations as a forward means he needs to flatter to decive, Good player but his stats are massivey inflated and he is selfish

  14. So happy to see Charlie again. Just like Seb, class. Thankful to the both of you for covering Spurs/Bundesliga very professionally over the years. Extra points to Seb for being a Spurs supporter.

  15. Possibly, Bayern's gegenpressing immersive style fits him best. Maybe he did not know it himself, but he has only come to realise it playing in Alianz. The next two years will see him scaling further up. ❤❤❤