Harry Kane out of excuses as Rice, Grealish and Trent shine: Rating the England players vs Ireland

We saw the Arsenal Declan Rice, the Liverpool Trent Alexander-Arnold and the Aston Villa Jack Grealish in Lee Carsley’s first England game. But what’s Harry Kane’s excuse now?

JORDAN PICKFORD

Had one save to make and made it, delivered one lovely pass to Trent Alexander-Arnold early on when we all thought he was about to boot the ball long, and that was that.

TRENT ALEXANDER-ARNOLD

There is no earthly way in which a pair of centre-backs should be split by a pass from fully 50 yards away, but it was still a wonderful ball for Anthony Gordon and the even more positive thing for England was Alexander-Arnold’s willingness to try it.

We asked for the Liverpool Trent Alexander-Arnold and this is the closest to that we’ve seen in an England shirt, sliding into midfield in the build-up from deep and sliding back out wide when he sensed crossing opportunities might appear, delivering both open play and set piece crosses with his typical unerring accuracy as confidence that’s always been lacking under Gareth Southgate suddenly appeared.

MARC GUEHI

Didn’t have much to do and what he did was perfectly fine in the main, but as has been the case so far for Crystal Palace this season, he didn’t look quite as assured as he did at Euro 2024. A high bar, admittedly.

HARRY MAGUIRE

Swung a couple of excellent passes forward into Anthony Gordon’s path early on to serve as a reminder that he’s actually far better with the ball at his feet than anyone gives him credit for, but also did the Harry Maguire stuff well, winning all six of his duels. May not be phased out after all.

LEVI COLWILL

Just not a left-back. Neither gets forward nor drifts into midfield, he essentially played as a very wide centre-back and wasn’t hugely convincing when defending, with the very limited good moments from Ireland coming through Chiedozie Ogbene on his flank.

KOBBIE MAINOO

Made a couple of sloppy passes and in search of a reason as to why England allowed Ireland into the game in the second half he’s the obvious culprit as the non-No.6 playing as the No.6.

DECLAN RICE

Laughable muted celebration aside, he was very good. Did more on the front foot in this game – no doubt as a result of being afforded more license, more by the opposition than the new manager perhaps – than he did in the entirety of Euro 2024.

He made one particularly impressive driving run from midfield like we’ve become accustomed to at Arsenal and before at West Ham but that we’ve rarely seen an England shirt and produced a fine finish for the opener, but his work for the second was most impressive.

A couple of one-twos (a three-four?) with Mainoo and then Bukayo Saka before laying the ball on a plate for Grealish to finish. He made it look very easy and it was too easy, but there’s plenty that can go wrong in an intricate move like that and every part was impeccable.

BUKAYO SAKA

Completed more dribbles than anyone (four out of five), produced a couple of lovely teasing crosses and has got to a stage now in his England career where no matter what he does, whether it’s a simple recycling of possession, beating his man, creating a chance or getting a shot away, he just does it, and it’s always the right decision. Probably should have scored late on.

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JACK GREALISH

Grealish has made just three starts at No.10 since his move to Manchester City, the last of them a 3-2 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool in April 2022 in which he scored – the perfect example of both why he’s not played there since and why his talents are deemed to have been entirely wasted by the the anti-flair Pep Guardiola. Enter Lee Carsley.

He was brilliant, drawing defenders towards him, dropping deep, overlapping the wingers, picking the ball up in tight spaces, running beyond and grinning broadly all the time through the boos and the kickings, finishing off that brilliant move for England’s second goal with a fine swept finish into the far corner.

ANTHONY GORDON

35-year-old Seamus Coleman was left to his own devices and Gordon had ludicrous space with which to run at him. Felt very weird after what we saw at Euro 2024 to have such a direct winger on the left and he was a danger throughout, pressed with purpose out of possession, though perhaps should have done better with a couple of chances, particularly the early one-on-one with Caoimhin Kelleher.

HARRY KANE

Had three good chances, should have scored at least one them and spent the rest of the game playing walking football. Slow to make runs, slow to get his shot away, slow to play passes; just slow.

He can’t use a supposed back injury as an excuse now, and while we would love something else to pin the blame for his laboured displays on we’re coming up blank. Literally now just a goalscorer who will therefore face criticism every time he fails to get on the scoresheet.

Substitutes

MORGAN GIBBS-WHITE (for Grealish, 78)

Had a point to prove having been so close to the England squad for so long and wanted to be involved in everything when he came on. He pretty much was, with his best moment a sublime through ball with the outside of his foot through to Saka.

ANGEL GOMES (for Mainoo, 78)

Comfortable on the ball and kept things simple. Shame he wasn’t given quite enough time for the ‘is he the No.6 solution?’ chat to begin in earnest.

EBERECHI EZE (for Gordon, 78)

Had nearly as many shots (2) as he played passes (5) which is good going. Both off target unfortunately.

JOHN STONES (for Maguire, 85)

Nearly got himself in a pickle under pressure near his own corner flag but wriggled out of danger.

JARROD BOWEN (for Kane, 85)

May well have run further with the ball in his one action, which ended in a shot well saved by Kelleher, than Kane managed in the 85 minutes before him.