Harry Kane’s wait for a goal goes on as the England striker again failed to score at Euro 2020.
All the talk before the tournament was about the Three Lions’ attacking prowess, but that’s the area of the pitch that has not been the biggest cause for concern in the group stages.
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England topped Group D with seven points having scored just two goals, but remarkably did not concede at all.
Kane had to wait until the 1-0 win against Czech Republic before having his first shot on target, which forced a good save from goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik.
The England captain is not showing the same form as he had at Tottenham this season, with some concerns that he may be carrying an injury or his mind be elsewhere amid transfer talk.
Jose Mourinho, who previously managed Kane at Spurs, joined talkSPORT ahead of the game and believed it was ‘perfectly understandable’ he was not performing to the same level.
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He said: “What we were trying to do [with Kane at Tottenham] was to identify the spaces during our building up where he could drop and find empty space or a couple of seconds where he could be the link.
“Every time he did that, two things would happen: a centre-back would chase and reduce space.
“If that happened, we always had other players attacking the space.
“If the centre-back stayed, we had the space in the pockets, people would find him and he would turn and link the play.
“We club coaches have more time to develop certain dynamics, a national team coach doesn’t have as much time to work. It’s perfectly understandable that he performs at a different level.”
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In his analysis on the game on talkSPORT, Mourinho added: “Harry was completely different, much more mobile, winning headers, winning fouls, pressing.
“I liked his game very much today. He got two amazing vertical passes in the first-half, one from Rice and another from Maguire.
“He doesn’t lose the ball. They all played really well and showed that they can do it.”
For all the toothless nature of England’s attack in the first three games, the biggest plus is how well the defence has performed.
Harry Maguire’s fitness issues going into the tournament led to fears about how the defence would cope.
The answer has been pretty emphatic as Jordan Pickford and his defence kept three clean sheets.
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The last time England did that in a major tournament was in 1982, but the time before that… the 1966 World Cup. And we all know what happened there – on home soil.
Stuart Pearce told talkSPORT: “It takes some doing at international level to keep three clean sheets on the pop.”
England captain Kane tweeted: “Top of the group, unbeaten and yet to concede. Job done in the group.”
The Three Lions have also now kept nine clean sheets in their last ten games.
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