It has wound people up no end.
The sight of Harry Kane, the country’s most potent and naturally-gifted goalscorer, taking corner-kicks rather than waiting in the penalty area to get on the end of them.
Watching England fail to overcome an abject Russian side on Saturday was bad enough, but Kane on corner duty had many supporters lambasting Roy Hodgson for the call.
England's "who, why and what?": Who decided that Harry Kane should take corners? Why is Harry Kane taking corners? What even is this!?
— Jonas Adnan Giæver (@CheGiaevara) June 11, 2016
The veteran manager has been defiant in the face of growing criticism, and isn’t about to change his preferred set-piece taker judging from his comments this week.
“I don’t need to apologise for Kane taking a corner,” said Hodgson. “Especially if you’ve got a player with his quality striking a ball and no one else in the team who comes up to that level of striking a ball.”
Former England captain @alanshearer has had his say on the Harry Kane on corners debate in his Sun column. pic.twitter.com/DjQqga8YtV
— PA Dugout (@PAdugout) June 13, 2016
Many would argue that no one else in the team comes up to Kane’s level of taking chances in the penalty area, but Hodgson does at least have the backing of one of his favourite players in Jack Wilshere.
Adding a little more justification than his riled coach, the Arsenal and England midfielder says it’s all down to Kane’s ‘special technique’:
“He practises a lot on his free-kicks. He’s got a special free-kick. He’s got that technique where it goes all over the place. Not many players can do that.
“He’s worked on his corners as well and, for me, he’s good enough to take them. I’ve heard some people say they want him in the box.
“But if we get the delivery right, which he can, we have enough big players in the box who can win the ball.
“I think when you’ve got that special technique you can make an exception.”
So far there has been precious little evidence of the Spurs man’s carefully honed delivery, but perhaps that will change against Wales on Thursday.
Harry Kane has completed 2 of his 5 corners so far. Although one did make it to the other side of the pitch… pic.twitter.com/0APBdzfvuH
— Squawka (@Squawka) June 11, 2016
