England’s World Cup position ‘nothing to be ashamed of’, Harry Kane insists

Harry Kane has revealed that he, along with the other experienced England players, will be a “calming influence” on the younger players to remind them that there is “nothing to be ashamed of” with their World Cup position.

England have four points from two games, after following an emphatic 4-2 defeat of Croatia with a frustrating 0-0 draw with Ghana on Tuesday. That leaves them all but certain to proceed to the next round, with a win against Panama in New Jersey on Saturday likely to win them Group L.

But Kane and Thomas Tuchel both said after Tuesday’s game at Foxboro that they were not worried about England’s performance. Kane said that England were in a “good place”, and that he knew from his extensive tournament experience that the most important thing was to focus on the next game.

“This is the fourth tournament in a row where the second game hasn’t gone as well as we would have liked,” Kane said after the Ghana game. “But ultimately it is four tournaments in a row where we pretty much qualified after two games, so it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Kane has played every major international tournament since Euro 2016, and said that the other experienced players would have a role to remind the youngsters that England are still in an objectively good position in this one.

“That’s where me and experienced guys who have lived through that will be a calming influence on some of the other boys,” Kane said. “The good thing is we play quickly now. We’ve had a lot of waiting in between the games, so it’ll be good to get back to Kansas now and, before we know it, we’ll be flying to New York.”

Kane’s tournament experience means that he understands that the most important thing for England at this stage is to get through and acclimatise themselves with the World Cup.

“The tournament’s always into two parts: the group stage and the knockout stage,” he said. “Group stage is just about getting through, finding the rhythm, finding the players on the pitch, and getting that World Cup feeling. Then the knockout stage will be completely different. So we’ve pretty much done part one, which is the main thing. Of course we want to finish with a win on the weekend, for the momentum and the feeling amongst the group. And I’m pretty sure we’ll do that.”