Euro 2020: How Harry Kane is not the only stifled England forward
Compile a league table after two rounds of Euro 2020 and England are 22nd. They have averaged 1.5 shots on target per match, better only than Finland and Slovakia.
Go to shots per match and they climb to 21st, ahead of Hungary, Finland and – more surprisingly – Belgium. Their total number of goals – a solitary one – puts them above only Scotland, Sweden and Turkey.
Suffice to say that few thought that, after two games, England would only have had as many shots on target as Holland’s right wing-back, the buccaneering Denzel Dumfries. England’s three – from Kalvin Phillips, Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount – represents a meagre return.
Include off-target efforts and 32 players had more shots in the opening two games than any Englishman.
Not a new problem for England
It has been a problem of creativity as well as of finishing. Set-pieces provided much of their threat in the 2018 World Cup and, with five dead-ball passes that led to a shot attempt, they stand third in that table.
In open-play, however, England’s 17 put them joint fourth from bottom. A dribble, from Phillips, led to their only goal, but that is the only dribble that has set up a shot; the comparable figures for Wales (six) and Denmark (five) suggest England should run with the ball more.
With six, Mount has made the most shot-creating actions of any England player. Even though their 55.0 percent share of possession put them eighth, some 25 other players have more than Mount; only Sterling, with five, has more than three in the England camp.
Their combined total of 28 is less than double the 15 Denmark’s defensive midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has on his own.
Cautious full-backs a problem
Rivals offer some illustration of where England are going wrong.
Gareth Southgate has rotated his full-backs but their combined total of seven shot-creating actions is as many as Italy’s Leonardo Spinazzola has managed on his own and one fewer than Scotland captain Andrew Robertson has.
Robertson has delivered 14 crosses, albeit from wing-back; England’s four full-backs have put in six between them.
It all suggests their positioning has been too cautious to make an impact in the final third.
Underperforming attacking players
England’s lack of incision has reflected most on Harry Kane; his three shots have all been off target, but he averages 3.91 attempts at goal per 90 minutes in the Premier League.
A man who topped the assist tally with 14 has produced a solitary shot-creating action, compared to 113 (an average of 3.30 per 90 minutes) in the English top flight.
That measly one chance created puts him level with goalkeepers Lucas Hradecky, Ugurcan Cakir and Jordan Pickford, plus his team-mate Phil Foden; again, it is a dramatic decrease on his 3.73 per 90 minutes for Manchester City in the Premier League.
It is a common theme. Even Mount, whose attacking numbers stack up better than this team-mates’, is down from 5.08 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes in the Premier League to 3.00.
Should Grealish and Sancho start against Czech Republic?
What Southgate does have is a surfeit of options; two of the most dominant for their clubs have been bit-part players so far.
Jack Grealish, who has had one cameo, ranked third in the English top flight, behind only Bruno Fernandes and Mount, for total number of shot-creating actions; his average of 6.18 per 90 minutes put him second only to Kevin de Bruyne and was far ahead of Sterling’s 3.55.
Jadon Sancho, who is yet to feature, was third in the Bundesliga charts, which Thomas Muller topped. His return of 5.46 per 90 minutes was the second best.
Sancho ended the Bundesliga season with an average of 0.83 goals and assists per 90 minutes. Among English players, only Kane (1.08) topped that in the Premier League. Foden (0.78) was close to Sancho; Sterling, at 0.60, was not but was close to Marcus Rashford’s 0.62.
Over the last three seasons in the Bundesliga, Sancho has scored 37 goals from 142 shots, a remarkable 26.0 percent chance conversion rate.
It is better than Kane’s 18.7 percent return over the same time. Rashford is less clinical, at 15.4 percent. Sterling’s 19.6 percent rate is much better but that dropped to 14.9 percent this season.
Do England simply not get the best out of Kane?
Of those who have featured, Kane represents the biggest issue.
He has had 44 touches so far in 154 minutes in Euro 2020, half of them in the final third. He averaged 41 per 90 minutes for Tottenham last season, with 18 per game in the final third.
Even in his unsuccessful Euro 2016, he averaged 4.87 shots per 90 minutes; it was 4.06 in Euro 2020 qualifying and it is just 1.75 now (admittedly, almost identical to the 2018 World Cup when, propelled by penalties, he won the Golden Boot).
His pass completion rate is at 63 percent, down from 69 in the Premier League, his key passes at 0.5 per game, instead of 1.4.
If a common denominator is that all of Southgate’s attacking players are struggling to replicate their club form on an international stage in Euro 2020, Kane is an extreme case. In every category, he has looked a lesser player.
For England, the challenge is to produce their Premier League – or even Bundesliga – selves.