Ian Wright is worried that England lack \u201ca focal point\u201d when Harry Kane is not on the pitch after the Three Lions lost 1-0 to Japan on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Kane suffered a minor injury in training on Monday and the Bayern Munich striker \u2013 who also missed their other friendly against Uruguay last week \u2013 was left out against Japan as a precaution.<\/p>\n
Phil Foden started as a false nine in Kane\u2019s place as England struggled to break down Japan, who scored the only goal of the game through Kaoru Mitoma on 23 minutes.<\/p>\n
England<\/a> now have just two more matches to fine tune before the World Cup, against New Zealand and Costa Rica, and Thomas Tuchel will be hoping for more convincing performances.<\/p>\n When asked if the England shirt was weighing heavy on players who are still uncertain of their place at the World Cup, Tuchel replied: \u201cI don\u2019t want to engage in this discussion.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it is very clear what we want to do and how we want to play, and focus more on the principals and on the doing instead of thinking about what it means.<\/p>\n READ: 2026 World Cup draw: England and Scotland learn fate in celebration of football, Trump<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cPlaying for England comes with pressure, it comes with noise, that is just how it is.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to see how the players adapt to that and we can only see it if we try it, so we tried it and we have to learn from it.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have two months now to get it out of our system. The players will play a lot of football and then we will be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n When analysing England\u2019s performance,\u00a0Wright said on ITV: \u201cJapan deserved the win. It was like the one we saw against Uruguay the other day, the kind of performance you might get in a tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were very ruthless, very good defensively, attacking-wise.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was no Harry Kane, no focal point, and England didn\u2019t look at all like we could lay a glove on them. It didn\u2019t look like that at all.<\/p>\n \u201cTo lose to them, especially in the fashion that we did, I can\u2019t worry because it was too many changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright added: \u201cI think Japan are a very, very good side, a very underrated side, and I think they showed that, and we didn\u2019t have a focal point.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the massive problem that we have and I feel that\u2019s why he probably tried Phil Foden in that nine.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that\u2019s the case and he\u2019s going to go that way, we might see Anthony Gordon, we might see Marcus Rashford up there.<\/p>\n READ: Cole Palmer out in the cold? England player ratings from a drab 1-0 defeat to Japan<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBut whatever they\u2019re doing, we\u2019ve got to make sure we\u2019re able to pass out with pace and skill instead of going to width all the time. You\u2019ve got to be able to play into the focal point, making movement off people.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we pulled Japan around enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Wright thought Harry Maguire\u00a0\u201cstood out\u201d when he came off the bench with the Manchester United centre-back having a header cleared off the line by Yukinari Sugawara.<\/p>\n Wright said:\u00a0\u201cI thought Lewis Hall looked pretty good when he came on and even Marcus Rashford when he came on, he looked sharp.<\/p>\n \u201cI do love the Harry Maguire reemergence, coming on there, three headers straight off the bat, with some set-pieces.<\/p>\n \u201cHe came on and showed how much of a [threat he is].<\/p>\n