Lee Carsley has insisted that he “definitely didn’t drop” Harry Kane, and reiterated that England’s captain will return to the starting line-up against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.
Carsley made the brave decision to play Ollie Watkins ahead of Kane for Thursday night’s 3-0 win in Greece, but saw it pay off as the Aston Villa striker scored early on, before England secured the scoreline they needed to keep their Nations League promotion hopes alive.
But after the game Carsley tried to re-affirm Kane’s importance to the England team, praised his efforts in recent months and claimed that the Bayern Munich striker had not in fact been “dropped”. His argument was that his decision was for Watkins to start, rather than against Kane.
“I definitely didn’t drop Harry Kane,” Carsley insisted. “He’s done well for me every game he’s played and been involved with. It wasn’t a case of being dropped, far from it. It was just a case of giving someone an opportunity.”
Carsley said on Thursday night that Kane was “absolutely fine” with his demotion to the bench. But multiple sources familiar with the situation, and granted anonymity to protect relationships, have told The Athletic that he was unhappy with the decision.
Carsley pointed to Watkins’ development and said that England would benefit from him playing more big games at international level. “Ollie is playing in the Champions League with Villa, he’s doing really well, the same with Morgan Rogers. It’s great that he got a goal, it looks like a great decision then doesn’t it? Ultimately he should take a lot of credit and confidence from tonight.”
Kane will return to the side when the Republic of Ireland come to Wembley on Sunday. If England win that then they will top the group, avoid a play-off, and Carsley will be able to look back on his mini-tenure as a success.
“He’s playing on Sunday, he’ll start,” Carsley said. “He’s captain, he’s so important to the team. It was just a case tonight of having a look at something different, giving someone else the experience who has not had a lot of chances to do so yet. Nothing more than that.”
England were lifted by Jude Bellingham on Thursday, who gave one of his best international performances, freed up in a No 10 role.
He was involved in England’s first two goals and Carsley hailed his maturity. “He always plays with responsibility,” the interim manager said of Bellingham.
“I know we only see it during games but he does it in training, he leads by example, he’s a really good person to have around because people want to aspire to him and compete with him. You’ve seen tonight that there is a level of player coming into the squad who are definitely raising the bar.”
(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
