England manager Thomas Tuchel believes it is impossible to find a player who can replicate the impact and skills of current captain Harry Kane. Kane recently scored his 87th goal for the Three Lions, extending his all-time record for the national team.
Kane is also nearing Peter Shilton's record of 125 international appearances, and at 33 years old, he is in exceptional form, with 73 goals for club and country last season putting him in contention for the Ballon d'Or.
"You will not get another Harry Kane, first of all," Tuchel said. "He is the first one to push everyone and that is his mindset and he became a very, very hardworking forward on top of his finishing skills. He is a complete package."
Tuchel acknowledged that finding a direct successor is a challenge. "We look for different options and solutions. We finished the game with Jude [Bellingham] up front as a number nine. There will be someone else, but it will not be Harry or a copy of Harry. We will find a solution when it comes to it but maybe not me. It might be another 10 years."
England has long faced difficulties in finding a reliable backup striker. Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney, who have previously filled that role, are in their thirties and were not selected for recent Nations League fixtures. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, also approaching 30, is in the current squad, while Liam Delap is reportedly the only English center-forward under 27 to have scored in the Champions League.
In a recent match in Prague, Tuchel experimented with Jude Bellingham in a more advanced role after Kane was substituted. "I like him as a nine," Tuchel commented. "Then he can contribute to both sides and overload the sides and doesn't affect so much of the balance. We found a bit of a new role for him in the last match, as a central 10, so he can go to both sides and it is more of a 4-2-3-1 than a 4-3-3 to have Harry and Jude closer together and to give them a chance to overload both sides. We are working on that. He is a natural goalscorer and he has the hunger to be on the scoreboard. He wants to be there and have the decisive action, so it makes not a huge difference if he plays as a nine or a 10."