Mason Mount believes Harry Kane’s ability to drop deep can be ‘brilliant’ for England moving forward.
Kane has shown a different side to his game this season for both club and country, with the Tottenham striker often coming deep to link up play.
The Three Lions skipper headed in his 33rd international goal in Sunday’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying win in Albania to end a run of 16 months without scoring for his country.
This season at Spurs Kane has adapted his game, moving away from the traditional out-and-out striker role to pick up the ball further away from goal and help build attacks – often in tandem with Son Heung-min and latterly Gareth Bale.
Now Mount – who scored the second goal in Tirana from a Kane pass – feels he and his fellow England attacking options can benefit from their captain’s differing approach.
‘He’s brilliant for us,’ the Chelsea midfielder said.
‘We want him to drop in those positions to link everything up because he is so good at it, as you’ve seen for setting up my goal.
‘He sees the passes, he’s very good with the ball vision-wise and picking people out. So for him to drop deeper and get the ball and turn it is brilliant for us because then we have runners.
‘We had Phil [Foden] and Raz [Raheem Sterling] running in behind and when he gets in the box he scores goals.
‘He’s always there, so it’s brilliant for us for him to get a goal and an assist and I’m thankful myself for him setting me up for mine.’
Job done, looking forward to Wednesday! pic.twitter.com/eIRUaIKX9r
— Mason Mount (@masonmount_10) March 28, 2021
Mount has started England’s last seven fixtures – a run stretching back to a 2-1 Nations League victory over Belgium at Wembley in October 2020, where he scored the winning goal.
Now the 22-year-old is keen to extend that run as England face Poland on Wednesday night.
The visitors will be without captain and all-time leading goalscorer Robert Lewandowski but Mount expects a tough test as Gareth Southgate’s side aim to make it three wins from three in Group I.
‘Of course,’ he replied when asked if he wanted to start the Poland game.
‘I’ve said this before, I’m still young – I want to play every game I can and as many games as I can.
‘My mentality is always that I just keep working hard to get into the team and stay in the team and just try to get as many games as I can.
‘That is always my focus. Obviously very fortunate to start the last seven games and I’m in a good place at the moment and scored [against Albania].
‘I am confident. I’ve just got to keep that going. Now the focus is on the next game. It is a massive game against Poland.
‘Their team is very strong. We know that. As a team we go into it with the mentality of wanting to win.’
