Kane will lead the line for England in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Friday against Estonia because Wayne Rooney has an ankle injury. It is a nice little thing to have – we want to win every game but we will be more tested in these friendlies coming up (against France and Spain next month) and everyone wants to win competitions and make this country proud.
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Although Walcott was understandably keen to strike a cautionary note given England’s habit of underachieving at major tournaments, he also insisted Hodgson and the players deserve credit for recovering from the shattering blow of crashing out of the World Cup at the group stages.
For much of the first half he was out of the game and barely noticeable.
We saw what he can do today.
“I, like all his managers, had to work hard on his decision-making as to when he struts his stuff, which is fantastic, and when he plays it more simply. He wasn’t the only one that deserved a mention but I’m pleased Ross got it”, he told reporters.
Hodgson then confirmed that the Three Lions will be without the services of Wayne Rooney, Gary Cahill, Michael Carrick, Joe Hart and James Milner for the final qualifier against Lithuania, which serves as a mere formality for the already qualified English team.
On Friday night, before the English team’s match against Estonia at Wembley, Sir Bobby Charlton, England’s record goal-scorer presented the award to Rooney, the new national leading striker. “He will be my captain tomorrow evening”, Hodgson said on Sunday.
“We are not the favourites but that should be the aim for us”.
He said: “We’ve just seen it with rugby”.
After scoring seven league goals for Everton in 2013/14 he shone on his first England start in the Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup warm-up fixture against Ecuador in Miami and played in all three matches in Brazil.
Goals from Theo Walcott after 45 minutes and Raheem Sterling in the 85th gave England their ninth successive win in a qualifying campaign for the first time.
“I could be accused of being critical of all players of giving the ball away”, he said.
“All games are won by the odd goal, the really big teams are having to work harder and the teams we don’t maybe rank as highly are getting tougher and better organised”. We tried to take the ball to them and through them and I thought he and Sterling were the classic exponents of that.
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The England boss added: “Gary Cahill has, to a few extent, been suffering from occasional back problems and we were a bit concerned with the flight, and the artificial pitch in Lithuania, so, in a straight choice between taking him or Chris Smalling, I went with Smalling”.
