Alan Shearer: Harry Kane taking corners is like asking Lewis Hamilton to change his own tyres
Spurs striker would be within his rights to tell Roy Hodgson he shouldn't be taking corners
HARRY KANE won the Premier League’s Golden Boot last season.
He is England’s No1 centre-forward and one of our best headers of a ball.
So why on earth is Roy Hodgson asking him to take corners? It is like asking Lewis Hamilton to change his own tyres.
Kane is well within his rights to pull Roy to one side in training this week and say, ‘I don’t think I should be taking corners — I want to be in the box getting on the end of them’.
He doesn’t have to shout at the manager, be angry or aggressive. But he is now senior enough to give his opinion.
That’s what I would have done if a manager had asked me to take the corners when I was playing.
I would love to know what Ray Lewington and Gary Neville said to Roy when he told them he was going to put Kane on corners duty.
Why can’t Wayne Rooney or Adam Lallana take them? Let’s be honest, if you are a midfielder playing for England and you have not got the ability to take a corner, you should not be on the pitch.
Kane’s corners in the draw against Russia were pretty poor anyway. So I cannot for the life of me understand the thinking behind it.
It is just bizarre and it is something Roy must address ahead of the Wales game.
In terms of England’s team for Thursday’s Group B match, I probably would stick with the same side.
Despite the disappointing result, when Roy analyses the DVD he will find far more positives than negatives about the performance.
But I would tell Kane and Raheem Sterling, who were not at their best against Russia, ‘I am backing you — but I need to see more. And if I don’t get it I will have to make changes’.
It is going to be a really tough game against the Welsh and if England underestimate Chris Coleman’s side, it will come back to bite them.
Their team might include a goalkeeper who has played just twice for Liverpool in Danny Ward, a midfielder who was recently on loan at relegated MK Dons in Jonny Williams, and a striker who right now does not have a club in Hal Robson-Kanu.
But better individual players do not necessarily make a better team.
And if all matches went on the strengths of the players on paper, there would never be any shocks.
Wales’ team spirit and attitude is one of the main reasons they are at the tournament. And Chris Coleman is doing a magnificent job.
It was always going to be tough for him taking over as boss after the tragic death of Gary Speed — and he lost nine of his first 13 games in charge.
But he then went back to basics and got the team playing his way. And the players really bought into that.
The proof was there for all to see in the way they played against Slovakia. I thought it was a brilliant performance.
They were full of energy and passion and everyone played their part. Other than the first couple of minutes, when Marek Hamsik had a shot cleared by Ben Davies, Wales dominated the first half.
In the second half when they came under the cosh, the Dragons had an answer to everything Slovakia did.
And credit again to Coleman, because he brought on Robson-Kanu, who changed — and then won — the game.
Because of that victory, Wales will go into the England game brimming with confidence and with belief that they really do belong in the tournament.
And when you have a player like Gareth Bale you are always going to have a chance against anyone. He is a superstar.
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If you stop Bale, you have a very good chance of stopping Wales.
But I don’t think you can man-mark the Real Madrid man. You just have to try to close the space down and give him no room whatsoever.
Wales will sit back against England and allow us to have possession.
But based on what I saw in the win against Slovakia, their wing-backs Chris Gunter and Neil Taylor will be a threat.
So Kyle Walker against Taylor and Danny Rose against Gunter will be two key battles and will go some way to deciding the game.