Didi Hamann believes ‘The jury is still out’ on Harry Kane’s ability to score at the highest level. Kane notched two goals last night in England’s 4-2 win over Croatia in their World Cup opener , taking his tally at World Cups to 10, making him the most prolific English player on the World’s biggest stage alongside Gary Lineker. Despite turning in a man of the match display, Kane was unable to impress Hamann . Speaking in the RTE studio after the game, he took
issue with the hype around Kane , questioning his goal scoring prowess in the latter stages of World Cups, stating that the Englishman doesn’t have the pace to get into scoring positions against top teams like Brazil, Germany and France, and bringing up the fact that 8 of his 10 World Cup goals have come in the group stages. Hamann believes pace is needed to win tournaments and doesn’t believe Kane will have the legs to hurt top teams on the counter attack if and
when England make it to the latter stages. Incredibly, he feels ‘The jury is still out’ on Harry Kane But this is where Didi is wrong. Of course Kane won’t be running onto long balls, trying stretch defences. He will be the one playing the passes from his deeper quarterback role. Kane is nominally a striker, but he’s really more of a hybrid these days. The England captain drops deep and plays passes to help get his team on the front foot. The entire team
has in fact, been built around Kane’s ability to do this, with Jude Bellingham , Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke specifically picked to provide moving targets for Kane to hit when he drops deep. On top of this, Kane remains an elite goalscorer despite playing so deep. He bagged 61 goals this season for Bayern Munich , and has 146 in 147 since joining three years ago. Hamann questioned Kane’s ability to score at the highest level against the highest opposition. 14 Champions League goals,
including strikes in both legs of the semi-final against an elite PSG side, has done little to change Hamann’s mind. As for his record in World Cups , Kane has three goals in five knockout games, not exactly a poor record by any means. Didi’s point does conveniently ignore his six goals in EUROs knockout games and also disregards the fact that there are simply more goals scored in the groups stages of tournaments than in the knockout rounds. Of the top 10 goal scorers
in World Cup history, just three (Kylian Mbappé, Just Fontaine and Jurgen Klinsmann) have scored more goals in the knockout rounds than the group stages. Now, Didi and the RTE panel were likely just engaging in a bit of playful rage-baiting to rile up the English fans. And it has certainly worked, Hamann’s quotes are already plastered across social media sites and English news websites. We all love having some fun at England’s expense, especially when they hype themselves up to unimaginable heights. To say
that the jury is out on Kane is simply wrong. The jury is out on Jordan Pickford, who remains England’s number one by default. The jury is out on their full-backs, neither of whom who started last night seem to have much interest in defending. The jury is out on an untested midfield that strolled past an over-the-hill Modric last night. But the jury isn’t out on Kane. He is an elite level attacker, easily in the top five best strikers in the tournament, and
if England are going to do anything of note in North America, it will be because Kane has hit top form and has fired them to the latter rounds. Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond
Harry Kane, Didi Hamann, England, Croatia, World Cup opener, World Cup goals, Bayern Munich, Champions League, Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon, Noni Madueke, Jordan Pickford