There is no longer a guarantee that Harry Kane starts for England

Ollie Watkins was selected over captain and scored after seven minutes – Lee Carsley deserves praise for setting the debate

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Maybe when the World Cup kicks off in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City in 19 months we will look back at the 3-0 victory in Athens as the time when the certainty of Harry Kane leading England ended.
It will be one of Lee Carsley’s legacy decisions to place in question the previously unshakeable guarantee that, when fit, Kane plays. Especially when it comes to must-win competitive fixtures such as this.
Of course it will not be up to Carsley in the future. That will be Thomas Tuchel’s choice. And we already know that he has a high regard for Kane having persuaded him to join Bayern Munich.
So there will be little doubt that Kane is central to Tuchel’s plans even if England’s new head coach did not deign it necessary to travel to Athens to watch this ultimately impressive performance.
But what will England’s attack look like by the time the next World Cup comes around? Will managing Kane’s minutes – he will be approaching his 33rd birthday and the tournament will be played in unforgiving heat – be one of the key issues for Tuchel to resolve?
For too long England have been over-dependent on Kane. Is this the first tangible sense that they are beginning to wean themselves away from that?
It feels like almost every England manager has a big choice to make during their tenure. It has even happened with caretakers before, as Peter Taylor appointed David Beckham as captain. More relevant to this debate is Fabio Capello, for whom it was a quick and brutal decision – to not use Michael Owen. For Gareth Southgate it was a more delicate one – how to phase out Wayne Rooney, England’s previous record goalscorer and special player.
For Tuchel it could be how to keep Kane happy without overplaying him. Or, rather, without always playing him. Or, rather, with finding a way to play without him. After all there is a school of thought that for all of Kane’s goals, for all of his leadership, for all of his personality and presence, he does not press particularly well, for example.
Southgate knew he had a problem even before England headed to the last European Championship. “We know with the profile of the players we’ve got, we don’t feel the way to press is really high up the pitch,” he said during the tournament. One of the players he was referring to was his captain. And Kane is not getting any younger.
England did not press well enough in Germany and that school of thought also posits another theory: successful teams do not just need to press but press from the front. Kane does not sprint towards an opponent.
Ollie Watkins does that even if it was perverse for Carsley to argue that it made sense to start with him here because he needed exposure to such a fixture. If that were the case then why did he not use the Aston Villa forward in previous games and not least the dim home defeat by Greece when he went with the failed experiment of Jude Bellingham as a ‘false nine’?
Given the way England want to play – unless Tuchel has something radical up his sleeve – the issue is who is there to be an effective understudy to Kane and potentially take his place, rather than try out a new system? Watkins has deserved his chance before now.
So in the absence of Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish and having decided not to start with Kane, Carsley went for pace with Noni Madueke and Anthony Gordon either side of Watkins.
The reward came early with a superbly-constructed goal down England’s right as Madueke combined with Jude Bellingham and ran on to the latter’s smart reverse pass. His cut-back was tucked home by Watkins.
That’s why Ollie Watkins is in the team! ⚽️#ITVFootball | #NationsLeague | @AVFCOfficial | @England pic.twitter.com/GtJgbPHpnz
On half-time he had the chance to show one of his best attributes, to run on to a through-pass and finish but the ball got stuck under his feet and the opportunity went.
Starting with Watkins ahead of Kane is not new. Southgate tried it, unsuccessfully, in a qualifier for the last Euros away to North Macedonia in November last year. But England’s qualification was already secure.
Watkins missed chances and Kane, left out for the first time in two years, had to come on to help force an own goal and salvage a draw. Watkins has undoubtedly improved since then, under the tutelage of Unai Emery at Aston Villa, while Kane undoubtedly had a disappointing Euros as he himself has admitted.
But in his 65 minutes did Watkins do enough to warrant the decision? The fact is that England – once again – were better once Kane replaced him and other changes were made. Watkins scored but there was not enough to usurp Kane, although Carsley might argue his squad management was the big winner. Not that Kane will want to be a super sub.
Given the result the interim manager will feel justified and, after the criticism he faced, he deserves praise. He did it his way. Watkins played his part and the second and third goals came with Kane on the pitch. Is that a sign of things to come? It will be for Tuchel to decide. But Carsley has set the debate.
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