Jamie Carragher has claimed that Harry Kane looked exhausted during England’s 1-0 win over Croatia and that Gareth Southgate made the right decision by taking him off.
England made a winning start to their European Championship campaign for the first time in history and to do so against their hardest opponents in the group stages certainly sets them up nicely for the rest of the tournament.
However, it was not one of Kane’s best days, as the Tottenham man struggled to get into the game and was marshalled well by the Croatian backline.
The England captain did put in a big shift and his intelligent run certainly helped to create space for Raheem Sterling to run in to for the home side’s goal but the 27-year-old did look lacklustre, even missing a fairly simple chance to double the lead.
Southgate eventually withdrew Kane with less than ten minutes left on the clock but Carragher suggested that the England boss could have done it sooner.
The former Liverpool defender wrote in his column for The Telegraph: “Two thoughts occurred to me as Gareth Southgate prepared to bring on Jude Bellingham in the 82nd minute of England’s encouraging open win.
“The first was that he had to take off Harry Kane. The second was that it should have happened 10 minutes earlier.
“Kane barely featured in the victory and looked exhausted. Brave as it seems for an England manager to substitute his captain, it was the right and obvious call.”
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