There is only one center forward in the 25-man roster: Kane. Why doesn’t England produce a No. 9 player?

Suddenly, there was only one left.

Thomas Tuchel's latest roster exposed the current lack of centers in England. There is only one pure forward in the 25-man roster, Harry Kane.

Admittedly, this situation is partly due to injuries. Tuchel explained that Watkins needs to be rested to deal with ongoing issues, Solanke has been sidelined since August and Delap has only just returned to Chelsea's squad after a two-month absence.

We should not forget that some versatile players who can play forward have made the list. Rashford, Bowen, Phil Foden and Gordon may not be centre-forwards in the traditional sense, but they may be deployed in the middle of England's games against Serbia and Albania this week.

Even so, seeing Kane as the only true forward on the 25-man roster still gives a strong sense of England's reliance on the 32-year-old player as the core of the offense; and the lack of other leading forward players will become a hidden worry for the Three Lions in next summer's World Cup.

Kane has performed well in Bayern Munich's Bundesliga this season, and can even be described as scoring goals. However, only 8 genuine England forwards have played in the Premier League this season, and 22-year-old Delap is the only player under the age of 26.

After Delap, there seems to be no new generation of players waiting for opportunities.

The England U21 team did not have a genuine forward when they participated in the U21 European Cup last summer, and there is only one genuine forward in their latest lineup, and that is Manchester City's 21-year-old player Dewan Mbama. He has not scored a goal in the Premier League and is currently on loan to the British Championship team Stoke City for training.

So, where have England’s No. 9 players gone? Why can't England produce traditional strikers?

With the influx of foreign aid, England's forwards have decreased sharply

England also has some excellent forwards, but looking at their data, it is not that encouraging.

Welbeck, who will turn 35 at the end of the month, and 33-year-old Callum Wilson are the only two English forwards to score more than one goal in the Premier League this season.

Among the English players playing overseas, Ivan Toney is the player with the most goals this season. He will go to Saudi Arabia in 2024 and scored 11 goals in 15 games for the Jeddah Nationals this season.

Tuchel called up the 29-year-old Toni for the matches against Andorra and Senegal in June, but the latter only came on as a substitute in the 88th minute of the friendly match against Senegal and has never been selected for the England team since.

The lack of player No. 9 did not happen overnight, but has formed a trend over a long period of time.

Last season, only three English forwards scored in double figures in the Premier League, namely Watkins who scored 16 goals, Delap who scored 12 goals, and Welbeck who scored 10 goals. This is the least in the history of the Premier League.

This is a far cry from the first season of the Premier League in 1992-93, when 20 English strikers scored in double figures.

In recent years, the already sharp downward trend has worsened sharply. Last season in the Premier League, all English forwards scored only 67 goals, less than half of the 2020-21 season.

Of course, Kane leaving Tottenham Hotspur to play in Germany is one of the reasons for this phenomenon, but he has already joined Bayern Munich in 2023, and the England forward still has 96 goals in the Premier League in the 2023-24 season.

What is worrying is that this trend is getting worse and worse.

So far in the Premier League this season, England's forwards have scored only 11 goals in total - if they continue to maintain their current goal frequency, they will only score 38 goals in total by the end of the season.

This is only 4 more goals than Andy Cole and Alan Shearer scored when they won the Premier League Golden Boot more than 30 years ago.

Cole scored 34 goals for Newcastle United in the 1993-94 season, and Shearer also scored 34 goals for Blackburn the following season - this is still the scoring record for an English forward in the Premier League era, although there were 42 games in a season at that time.

BBC commentator Christopher Sutton said that there are several factors responsible for the decline of England forwards. Sutton scored in double figures in four Premier League seasons, including 25 goals at Norwich in the 1993-94 season and 18 goals at Blackburn in the 1997-98 season, for which he won the "Golden Boot" award.

Sutton believes that one of the reasons for the lack of successors to England's forwards is the lack of appearances. According to statistics, only Welbeck, Watkins and Calvert-Lewin have started more than three games in the Premier League this season, while Nketiah, Solanke and Barnes have not started a single game.

"Looking back at the 1990s, foreign players like Jurgen Klinsmann and Dennis Bergkamp were just starting to join the Premier League, but the total number of foreign forwards was much smaller." Sutton explained.

"The best striker of my time was Shearer, but if you look back across the teams you'll see there were a lot of outstanding English centre-forwards like Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham, Robbie Fowler and David Hurst - You can also add Stan Collymore and Dion Dublin to this list

"Before Michael Owen came along in the 1998 World Cup, the number of home-grown strikers in England was staggering and they came in all shapes and sizes. "

"One of the differences is that they used to play every week. How many English centre-forwards can start in the Premier League now? Whether they start will depend on what players the club can attract from elsewhere. "

" Another change we saw was the team's formation.. I'm not saying that when I played, all teams were rigidly 4-4-2, but now there are far fewer teams using a two-striker formation. "

"In a sense, things have come full circle because if you look at teams like Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United, the number nine is back in vogue. There are many forwards in the Premier League, just not many in England. "

Tactical changes, he has been unwilling to play center since he was a child.

Alan Shearer once formed the feared "SAS" combination with Sutton, helping Blackburn win the Premier League championship in 1995. He believes that in the past The biggest reason for the current shortage of forwards is the tactical shift we have seen in 10 to 15 years.

"Due to changes in the way kids are trained and coached, no one wants to play as a center forward because there is little opportunity to touch the ball. "The former England captain said on a podcast.

"The coaches want the goalkeeper to pass the ball to the defenders, the defenders split the wings, then pass it to the midfielder... and then the ball comes back. As a center you think ‘I’m not involved in the offense at all’. "

"I'm sure that's why there's a lack of number 9s right now, especially in England. "

Sutton agrees with Shearer that while modern wingers like Rashford and Saka score more goals than old-school wingers, he sees the current situation as "a huge problem".

"Shearer has a point, everyone wants to touch the ball on the pitch now," Sutton explained. "Everyone wants to be a creative player out wide or a left-footed player cutting in from the right. These players can score goals too, but it's very different than having a player who can lead the line. "

Owen shared the "Golden Boot" award with Sutton as the top scorer in the Premier League in the 1997-98 season. He was only 18 years old at the time, and he won the award exclusively the following year. He feels that if he debuted now, he would not be regarded as a striker. "In the game now, I think I'll be one of the wide players," he said on another podcast. "I don't think I'm big enough to contain two defenders, so I think I'll play on the left. "

"What I'm worried about is that I've spent my whole life learning how to work with my teammates and honing my craft. Now, how do we reinvent these pairings? I've been looking forward to the team returning to a two-forward formation, but will that actually happen? "

After Kane, who will take the lead?

You can answer Owen now. Tuchel will not use a two-forward tactic this week, at least not the kind of tactic Owen refers to.

Sutton added: "In terms of numbers alone, the situation now is completely different from the 1990s. But if you look carefully at the roster we had at that time, you will find that the overall quality of the players was also very high, and many players did not really get the opportunity to play for England. "

"Ferdinand only played 17 times for England, but he performed very well. Fowler has played a few more games than Ferdinand and is probably the most talented goalscorer you will ever see. But neither of them can match Shearer, because Shearer's shooting efficiency is like a machine. "

Sutton only played once for the England team, coming on as a substitute against Cameroon in November 1997. In February 1998, he refused a call-up to the England B team because he had a dispute with the then England coach Hoddle.

"I could joke about how I messed up the relationship with Hoddle, because if I didn't go, there would be a lot of excellent forwards who could replace me. But nowadays, if you are a reasonably good shooter and the World Cup is coming, you will definitely be gearing up, be cautious in your words and actions, and at least maintain a harmonious relationship with the coach. "We have Kane, but what happens after that?" he added. "

"If you are an England center now and can kick the ball accurately, then you are very likely to go to the World Cup. I almost want to dust off my shoes. ”