Thomas Tuchel hits back at criticism over England’s woes without Harry Kane

Thomas Tuchel has highlighted the challenges in England ’s task to find a quality striker alternative in the absence of Harry Kane and insisted it is normal for the “top teams to rely on top players”. Talismanic captain Kane was a late withdrawal from England’s last outing before Tuchel decides his World Cup squad, with the Three Lions subsequently looking toothless in a dismal 1-0 home defeat to Japan . Phil Foden operated in the false nine but failed to make much of a difference , being replaced by Dominic Solanke before the hour mark.

But when asked if he was concerned of the drop in quality when his team are without Kane, the country’s all-time record goalscorer, Tuchel responded by saying that an alternative of equal quality does not exist. Harry Kane sat out England’s defeat to Japan with a minor injury (The FA via Getty Images) “In the absence of Harry Kane, we don’t have the same threat,” Tuchel said. “Bayern Munich, in the absence of Harry Kane, they don’t have the same threat.

No team in the world has the same threat. It’s just normal. Top teams rely on top players and top nations rely on top players.

“On top of it, Harry dropped out so we lost him not only as a player but also as a personality. It’s always a bit disrupting if the captain leaves the last training after 15 minutes and is out of the squad. ”Of course it affected us but of course it’s normal, it’s a reality.