HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF KANE STILL A HEAD SCRATCHER

GARETH SOUTHGATE is not about to abandon his back-three against Germany tonight, nor at this winter's World Cup, and the England manager has spent the weekend considering how his side can be more of a threat going forward.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Unless England score in the first six minutes at Wembley this evening, they will surpass 500 minutes without a goal from open play and there is no more pressing issue for Southgate than addressing their chronic lack of creativity before Qatar.

Southgate has insisted England are simply struggling to finish their chances but against Italy on Friday they had precious few sights of goal until the hosts were already 1-0 up, and Harry Kane forced a double save from Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Southgate's back-three inherently limits the number of attackers in the side, and Raheem Sterling has revealed the manager has been working out "where we can find that extra man with this five at the back".

One consideration is pushing one of his holding midfield players likely to be Jordan Henderson and Jude Bellingham tonight - higher but Southgate has ruled out moving the likes of Phil Foden or Jack Grealish into a deeper role.

Another potential solution to England's creativity problem is to harness Kane's qualities as a playmaker, by allowing the captain to operate deeper and partnering him with two direct forwards.