“Play every game like it’s your hundredth,” said no one. But for Harry Kane, embarking upon this centurion stage of his England career, it might just prove sound advice.
On the night England’s captain became just the tenth man to wear the shirt 100 times, he was spurred by visible determination to mark the milestone and managed it twice, scoring both goals in a 2-0 Nations League victory over Finland.
In doing so, Kane served a hardly necessary but still welcome reminder of his importance in the post-Gareth Southgate era, delivering a better individual performance than any on England’s run to the final of Euro 2024.
Goalless at the break against a solid enough Finnish side, interim boss Lee Carsley was in danger of following the noise of his Dublin baptism with the dull quiet of the dreaded flat Wembley affair.
With the 67th and 68th goals of his international career, though, Kane ensured a damp evening turned into one of celebration, and not only for the win that maintains Carsley’s 100 per cent start.
“It was really special,” said Kane, who was presented with a golden cap and joined on the pitch by his two young daughters, Ivy and Vivienne, ahead of kick-off. “They are special memories when they're older when we can look back and see them on the pitch.”
The suspicion during Euro 2024 was not that Kane was finished, but that he was not fit. He rubbished the theory again this week, but here was an improvement that added evidence to the case.
At 31, the Bayern Munich striker does not move as he once did, but gone was the lumbering hinderance that masqueraded as England’s focal point for an hour of July’s defeat to Spain in Berlin.
There was purpose back in his touch, sharpness in his reaction to each half-yard, feet and brain back working not only to the same brief, but, crucially, at the same speed.
The opener, in particular, was a goal Kane simply would not have scored on his summer’s form and in pure technical terms, among his best in an England shirt.
Seeing a loose Finnish pass picked off, he snuck into a pocket on the corner of the box, signalled to Trent Alexander-Arnold where he wanted the ball and, having seen the kind of form the Liverpool defender is in, knew immediately it would arrive. He welcomed it on the half-turn, slid through the legs of the covering defender off the outside of his boot, then flashed past Lucas Hradecky off the underside of the bar before the Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper could move.
The second was equally sharp, forged again by a pass made to look ludicrously easy by Alexander-Arnold and then a clever lay-off from debutant Noni Madueke, just on off the bench.
Much has been said of the need to get quick forwards running off Kane and having Anthony Gordon stretching the play has certainly made a difference to the dynamism of England’s attack in these two matches, as, frustratingly, most predicted it would have at Euro 2024.
Alexander-Arnold’s return, though, has been the real game-changer. In 180 minutes during this international break, the 25-year-old conjured seven or eight passes bordering on impossible to defend. It is not just that he sees and plays balls others cannot, but that teammates now, knowing his quality, are making runs they otherwise would not.
It is hard to know whether that makes Southgate right for trying to shoehorn Alexander-Arnold into his Euros team, or horribly wrong for doing so out of his best position.
Either way, returning the right-back to that station has been one of a number of smart moves in what has been a good fortnight for Carsley. There has been no sense of a post-Euros hangover, the squad freshened up just enough to breed a sense of renewal and Angel Gomes and Rico Lewis, in particular, offering something England did not have before.
Carsley hinted that there will be more changes for the next break next month and that will bring its own challenges. What, for instance, to do with a front-four that has blended nicely this week when three players nominated for the Ballon d’Or come back into the mix?
For now, though, at the end of a phase one of this indefinite audition, there is no fresh or firm reason why Carsley should not get the job full-time. That is a victory in itself.
