Harry Kane done for England but who can replace him as striker?

We need to talk about Harry Kane.

On Tuesday night he will, barring Lee Carsley curveballs, win his 100th cap for England. His current pleasingly neat record of 66 goals from those first 99 caps place him firmly atop England’s all-time scoring list and are the numbers of an unquestionably world-class goalscorer.

Yet as that milestone cap approaches, his place in the team has never seemed less secure.

For pretty much the entirety of his England career there have been edgelords pretending things would somehow be better without him (some of us have pretended to pretend), that a mythical striker existed who would score two goals every three games while also creating chances by the bucketload and being a captain and leader who never once brought a hint of controversy to the role.

And you only have to look at how quickly and gleefully the right-wing media have drummed up a make-believe sh*tstorm in their own minds about Carsley to realise how impressive that element of Kane’s England career has been.

As recently as this summer he helped England to another major final in a tournament where no player scored more goals than he did. But he was also, to use a technical term, complete gash.

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Ponderous on and off the ball, suddenly uncertain about whether he should be playing on the shoulder of the last man within the width of the goal or dropping short and pulling wide as he always has to such good effect.

Clearly hampered by a back injury more troublesome than he or England or Bayern Munich ever officially let on, Kane was nowhere near his best despite England’s run to the final and his goals along the way.

Much was made of England’s kind run to the final, and it undoubtedly was that, but on Saturday night they took a further step down in class to face an Ireland side that didn’t even qualify for the Euros in a Nations League B clash won pretty comfortably.

Kane, though, was dreadful again. And there are no happy answers here. If he’s still this visibly hampered by the back problem he first picked up several months ago then that itself is a concern, with no sign of improvement in his mobility or general movement around the pitch two months after his lumbering Euro efforts.

The other, even worse, possibility is that this is just who Kane is now. That time is catching up with him and this is as fast as he will ever move from now on.

And that, for the first time, means his place as a certain England starter is – or at the very least should be – under threat.

If he can now only play the walking football he produced in the Ireland game, then he becomes a player who contributes only goals. And when there are no goals he will, as he did in Dublin, became an active hindrance to the speed and fluidity of England’s play.

Carsley clearly wants his team to press higher up the pitch than Gareth Southgate – a key reason why Anthony Gordon a) started in Dublin and b) emerged as England’s biggest winner of the night.

Perhaps the single most revealing and pertinent moment of a game England won with comfort was the sight of Caoimhin Kelleher with the ball at his feet and Kane loping towards him from the edge of the box. Gordon, starting a good 10 yards further back, reached the Ireland keeper before England’s striker.

It was not a good look. Nothing about Kane or anything he’s ever done for club and country would suggest a player prone to lack of effort. We must assume this is Kane giving everything he has to give. And it’s not enough.

He has never been rapid. He has always been at his best when surrounded by fleeter-footed players who can create for and benefit from Kane’s speed of thought on the football pitch. But he wasn’t slow either. Not like this. He was always quick enough.

Quick enough to get to that ball, quick enough to connect with that through ball, quick enough to arrive in the box and apply a finishing touch after a bout of pundit-baiting quarter-backing on the edge of the centre circle.

He does none of that now. When he drops deep or wide it is a problem, because it now takes him too long to get where he ultimately needs to be. Kane has never just been a poacher, but it increasingly looks like he needs to commit either to just being that goal-hanging striker that many have wanted him to be all along or drop deeper permanently and become a string-puller using the strength on the ball and passing range that, for now, do appear unaffected.

But neither one of those players is anything like as effective as the Kane who was effectively both. There was an important word earlier, though. His place should be under threat. Should. Because it still probably isn’t, given the dearth of alternatives.

In the short term, Ollie Watkins’ absence from this squad is a p*sser. He has lacked a bit of sharpness this season but on last season’s form, absolutely commands a place in the team over this current iteration of Kane. He might not be quite as lethal in front of goal – or at least (with one memorable exception) has yet to prove it in England colours – but he offers more of what Carsley wants in his attackers and won’t slow everything down or be caught 20 yards behind a counter-attack.

But Watkins has taken a long route to his current pre-eminence. He will be 30 by the next World Cup. He is not the next generation any more than the now-irrelevant Ivan Toney.

England arguably need Dominic Solanke to be good almost as much as Spurs do, but he turns 27 this week and even Eddie Nketiah – who really does not need to do much at all, having finally got his move away from the Arsenal bench – is 25.