How Harry Kane's deep role can help England at the World Cup

There has been much discussion about how England can best use Harry Kane. However, Thomas Tuchel has a clear opinion: he wants his captain to fall deeper. Analysts and fans have questioned Kane's position in the past. Why wouldn't such a prolific goalscorer stay in the box when England need goals? But dropping Kane could actually give him golden opportunities at this World Cup. To understand this, we have to look at the role he has played at Bayern Munich in recent months.

Kane has just completed the most productive season of his club career. In 51 games for Bayern Munich he scored no fewer than 61 goals. This is an incredible number for any striker, let alone one who also has to contribute to building play, as he did for Bayern this season. English fans want to see this Kane goal machine at the World Cup. However, it is important to note that he achieved his remarkable total while playing increasingly freely, sometimes as deep as his backs.

Tuchel has decided it makes sense to build the squad around this version of Kane. Bayern lacked a natural link between defense and attack for much of the season due to injuries to midfielder Jamal Musiala. Kane was asked to fill this role. "When Jamal plays it's different. You get the ball from defenders and you drive forward... when we played together it was better that he did that," Kane said. “This season has allowed me to play a little deeper, use my qualities in that respect and then arrive later in the 16.”

Kane performed this role brilliantly, with remarkable passing from deep, allowing him to find players ahead of him in dangerous attacking positions. When Bayern played the ball back, it forced opponents defending deep to step forward as a unit. Kane then dropping back to ask for the ball did one of two things: 1. When a centre-back followed him or covered him tightly, it freed up space in the heart of the defense for other players to run into. 2. If a defender hesitated to follow him deep, Kane was the free man, offering his team a surplus in midfield, with time to turn and make a dangerous pass.


Champions League winners Paris St-Germain have used Ousmane Dembélé in a similar manner in this roving false nine role, which has brought them great success and caused problems for teams looking to defend man-to-man. Bayern, with Luis Díaz, and PSG with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, used tall, energetic right-footed left wingers to attack the space opened up in the center when their strikers dropped deep. Díaz has scored 26 goals this season, Kvaratskhelia 19. Tuchel has understandably opted for the same left winger profile for this World Cup in Anthony Gordon and Marcus Rashford.

With both Bayern and Paris St-Germain finding success with this approach in the Champions League, it seems a viable tactic against strong opponents and a strategy that England will also employ against stronger nations. All of this helps explain why Kane's moves when dropping deepen the overall gameimprove his team. But how do we explain Kane's impressive goal tally? Paradoxically, moving Kane away from the 16 helped during the build-up, allowing him to arrive in better positions to finish.

Both England and Bayern are looking to unlock teams through push-and-pull moves. The idea is to draw the opponent into certain areas of the field before exploiting the space that becomes available elsewhere. We have found that when Kane drops deep, teams press forward, creating space in the back for players to attack. Alternatively, when both England and Bayern get the ball forward quickly, teams drop back, closer to their own goal, creating space for the defense.

This also happens by running. A winger who dribbles past his man can force defensive teams to get closer to their goal, one of the reasons why Tuchel selected Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke. When Tuchel's selection was announced, there were questions about the exclusion of some big names - but to get the best out of Kane, this makes more sense. The absences of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Cole Palmer and Adam Wharton appear to leave England without immediate passing quality from deep. But the inclusion of John Stones as a centre-back, combined with Kane's role as a deep passer, compensates for this.

A squad based on physical qualities – in height, speed and intensity – may fail in the humid and hot conditions, but Tuchel has opted for pairs that match in profile, giving England the chance to rotate often without losing the balance of the team. By allowing Kane to vacate the box and surrounding him with runners who often enter the box, such as Gordon, Bellingham, Rice and O'Reilly, England offers more scoring opportunities. England have used Kane in a fluid role before, but they haven't always built the squad around him in such a balanced way. The selection Tuchel has made appears to address these issues. The English coach hopes that his team is as effective in attack as Bayern was last season.