KANE DEFENDS BOSS' QUICK FIXES AFTER DISAPPOINTING SEND-OFF

WHEN Gareth Southgate cut Harry Maguire from his Euros squad last week, the manager not only lost one of his most trusted defenders, but his third top scorer.

- Dan Kilpatrick

Only Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka have more international goals than Maguire's seven, which goes some way to illustrating the inexperience of Southgate's squad, which travels to Germany this afternoon.

Southgate has moved with surprising and, arguably, uncharacteristic ruthlessness to reshape England, with half of the 26 players at the World Cup 18 months ago axed and 12 of the current group going to their first major tournament.

"I think we have more than enough experience," said Kane, who is comfortably the most capped player in the squad with 90. "Especially a lot of players who have played in two or three tournaments now.

"There are always going to be new players, players who deserve to be here, players who are in their first tournament. The lads who have played in a lot of tournaments have to step up and be there for the ones who need a bit of help."

The question, though, is less whether England have enough leaders - Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Declan Rice and Kane all have more than a half-century of caps, and Kieran Trippier is on 48 - and more whether they can gel quickly enough as a coherent unit with so many new faces.