John Stones knows a thing or two about world class strikers - after all, he has played against and with a whole host of them.
And the Manchester City centre-half says he would not swap Harry Kane for Erling Haaland. Surprisingly, Kane has not been on the scoresheet at this World Cup, despite England racking up nine goals in their three group stage games.
But when asked if Kane is every bit as good as Haaland, Stones has no hesitation, saying: “Definitely. Erling is so new to our league, and Harry has been playing in it. They are both incredible players, incredible within their own rights. Harry has always been incredible for me, incredible to play with.
“The things (with Kane) that don’t get spoken about - the positioning, the headers from corners that us as defenders appreciate massively, what he brings to the team as a leader and as a person and as a presence, can outweigh sometimes what happens, or the outcome of things. He is a massive team player and I’m sure he’ll get on the scoresheet soon.”
Despite the odd pundit calling for Kane to be rested for the final group game against Wales, Kane has started all three matches and is a certainty to line up against the Senegalese. But that is not the case with Phil Foden even though he put in a sparkling, goalscoring display against the Welsh.
If Stones was selecting the starting line-up, though, you suspect his City team-mate would be one of the first names on it. He said: “I have never seen anyone like Phil, anyone at that age, with his ability, his football knowledge, his freedom in how he plays and how he expresses himself. The ability he’s got is frightening.
“I’m a huge fan of Phil, I’m lucky to get to play with him pretty much every day and I look forward to what he can do and love playing with him.
“I’m extremely lucky, City are extremely lucky, England are as well, that we’ve got someone like that and I want to help through whatever it might be and make sure he gets what he needs on and off the pitch that allows him to go and play like he did the other night.”
Stones, 28, was part of the team at Russia 2018 that went out of the World Cup at the semi-final stage, having surrendered a one-goal lead to Croatia in Moscow.
And after having an even closer miss at the Euros last year, Stones - who has been outstanding in England’s campaign so far - is determined not to suffer the same sort of agony for a third tournament in a row.
He explained: “After coming so close twice now, especially with the last tournament, you never want to go through that feeling again. It’s probably more than likely I will through my career and I can’t get my head around that but I always want better than what I’ve done from previous times.
“I think it was, from 2018, a success in terms of uniting the nation and everyone loving English football again. But then you look at it and realise we were so close and wanted to do more. That’s somewhere I don’t want to be. We’ve got to do better than what we did last time. That’s the long and short of it.”
