The trio led England’s attack in the victory at Wembley on Thursday, but their link-up play lacked cohesion as Roy Hodgson’s men stuttered to an uninspiring victory thanks to Chris Smalling’s late header.
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“We know that, but it is a good sign when you don’t play as well as you can do, but you win the game”. “We are ready. We haven’t been at our best, but we have won the three games”.
“I’m not prepared to accept that we didn’t play well”, he told ITV.
However, they performed poorly for the vast majority of the game, barely testing a Portuguese side that was reduced to ten men in the 35th minute when Bruno Alves was dismissed for kicking Harry Kane in the head.
“It is a good problem to have, shoe-horning in attacking players”, said Hodgson when asked about the many options at his disposal.
“You would find me complaining if we weren’t defending well as a team, conceding lots of goals, chances and every time we played we needed to score three to win a game so I’ve seen no evidence of that”.
England’s forwards struggled to make an impact as Kane and Jamie Vardy, the Premier League’s top two scorers last season, were shunted out wide to make way for captain Wayne Rooney centrally.
It remains to be seen whether Hodgson opts to name the same starting line-up when England open their Euro 2016 campaign against Russian Federation, but having beaten Turkey and Australia in the last two weeks, last night’s performance was his side’s worst of the warm-up period. If you want to bet on that game, find an exclusive promotion offer here.
The Ballon d’Or victor believes that with the exciting squad Roy Hodgson has, they can do something special at the tournament. That’s what we had these three friendlies for – to prepare for the tournament, whether it’s tactics or set pieces or anything.
“As a preparation game it would have been better to play against 11”. We have seen that everywhere he has gone. I saw him play on the left wing, the right wing, as striker, I saw him a little bit more down in midfield.
Although England are still a work in progress, Kane is confident the attacking options available to Hodgson, which also include Daniel Sturridge and Marcus Rashford, will make his team a formidable force in France. It’s always hard with 10 men, especially against England and in this atmosphere.
A conundrum for Hodgson before the June 11 opener against Russian Federation in France is whether he can accommodate Rooney, Kane and Vardy together in the starting lineup again.
“It’s not just that formation, we have been doing a few”, he said.
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“We were the better team, even with 11 v 11, but we need to player better. I’m happy I’m still here!”
