England striker Callum Wilson believes he gives manager Gareth Southgate a ‘nice attacking weapon’ as back-up to Harry Kane.
The Newcastle forward came on in the opening World Cup game against Iran amid fears over a foot injury to Kane, laying on a goal for Jack Grealish, and again replaced the England skipper as Wales were despatched 3-0 on Tuesday.
Wilson, 30, may be Kane’s understudy but he insists he is no like-for-like replacement. ‘Me and Harry are totally different players,’ he said.
‘I think that’s probably why we are in the squad together. Harry’s strengths are linking the play and being an unbelievable goalscorer.
‘Mine is probably stretching the game and creating space for others within midfield, to get in on the shoulder and try to get goals.
‘Whatever the game requires – late on in games, no one wants to run towards their own goal so it’s probably a nice attacking weapon to have.’
Wilson acknowledged it was key for England to show improvement against Wales after the dour draw against the US. ‘It was important we responded with a performance more than anything. [The US game) was a little bit flat, not to the levels we know we can set.’
Southgate had the luxury of taking Kane off after 58 minutes against Wales. He also gave Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker their first action of the tournament after injury and said: ‘We had two or three players we wanted to get off in terms of minutes and were in the fortunate position to do that. To get minutes into Kyle and Kalvin was really important.’
Kane, the Golden Boot winner four years ago with six goals, has three assists but has not scored yet in Doha. Southgate, however, is unconcerned.
He added: ‘It was the same in the Euros. He has three assists now, three important assists from moments of real quality. We’ve been saying for a couple of years now we need to share the goals around and we’re starting to do that.’
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