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#3 Harry Kane remains England’s most reliable goalscorer
Raheem Sterling might be on form right now and on his performances, he’s probably England’s most important player, but in terms of pure goalscoring, you simply can’t touch Harry Kane. Sure, the Tottenham man won’t score an easier hat-trick for England than today’s – one was a tap-in following a terrible piece of defending and two came from the penalty spot – but as the old adage goes, you’ve got to put the ball into the net and Kane does that.
His penalty technique seems to be the most reliable that England have been able to call upon since the days of Alan Shearer; outside of a rare miss against Turkey in 2016, Kane has found the net from the spot on 8 occasions, and there seems to be absolutely no doubt when he steps up that he’ll score.
Following tonight’s hat-trick, Kane now has 25 goals for England in just 40 games. That puts him at 14th in the all-time list, ahead of names like Geoff Hurst, Stan Mortensen and Kevin Keegan and just 5 away from Shearer, Nat Lofthouse and Tom Finney. More to the point, his average goals-per-game rate now stands at 0.625 – superior to Wayne Rooney, Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker.
Given he’s only 26 years old and could have the best part of a decade ahead of him, would anyone bet against him managing to break Rooney’s record of 53 goals? If anyone can do it, it’s the current England captain.
