England head coach Thomas Tuchel used Phil Foden as a false nine with captain Harry Kane injured - an experiment that failed in defeat against Japan

Thomas Tuchel and his England team had a taste of what life would be like without Harry Kane as they slumped to a deserved defeat against Japan at Wembley.

On the evidence of this grim spectacle, the presence of the 32-year-old captain and record goalscorer will be the difference between failure and any chance of English success at this summer's World Cup.

Kane was absent from the team list against Japan after suffering "a minor issue in training". He was at Wembley but afforded the night off.

For now, the words "minor issue" are enough to send shudders through England and their followers.

Because the evidence of these 90 minutes tells us that to lose Kane for a game of greater consequence would be a major issue.

Kane's importance simply cannot be overestimated.

Should any misfortune befall England's only world-class striker - perhaps their only high-class striker - in the 78 days between this game and their World Cup opener against Croatia in Arlington on 17 June, that could spell serious trouble.

Kane did not figure in either the draw against Uruguay or this loss to an impressive Japan, who sit 18th in the Fifa rankings, some 14 places below high-flying England.

Without him, England lacked punch, creativity and cutting edge.

Even head coach Tuchel appears to be struggling to find a solution should Kane be unavailable during the World Cup. Quite simply, it is not even worth contemplating from England's viewpoint.

England's threat, without Kane, falls off a cliff.

This is surely not news to Tuchel, but he will have everything crossed that the Bayern Munich striker is fit and well in June.

Alternatives have had try-outs during this camp, but recognised number nines in Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin did not make their case strongly enough.

And the experiment of using Manchester City's Phil Foden as a false nine looked exactly that against Japan, Tuchel perhaps recognising it was not delivering desired results as it was abandoned inside an hour when he sent on an orthodox striker in Solanke.

Foden was tireless, but this was England's equivalent of an ill-fitting square peg in a round hole. It was a desperate measure, through no fault of Foden's, that should now be forgotten.

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In even more desperation, as England tried to offer some belated threat, the bankruptcy of ideas was such that it was back to lumping long balls to substitute Harry Maguire in the hope physical force and height might disrupt a composed Japanese defence.

It was ugly, basic - on this occasion unsuccessful, although Maguire did have a header cleared off the line by Yukinari Sugawara in a rare moment of danger for Japan's defence.

The Football Association labelled these two friendlies a 'Send-Off Series', the last home games before the World Cup.

England got a send-off all right, resounding boos greeting the final whistle before the players went around applauding thousands of empty red seats and the few fans who had bothered to stay.

Tuchel will rightly say Uruguay and Japan are the tough tests England required to tune up for the World Cup, but the burning question is still the same and has not been answered.

Do England really have a chance without Harry Kane? He is irreplaceable, the drop-off after him alarming.

Kane's outstanding record of 78 goals in 112 games is impressive enough, but in the wider context, since his debut against Lithuania in March 2015, he has either scored or assisted in 32% of England's goals in that period, having an involvement in 95 out of 293 goals.

The World Cup represents the short-term future, the most important matter on the horizon, but with Kane turning 33 in July, the long term looks bleak, with few serious contenders as a successor on the horizon.

The great number nine decline - where have England's strikers gone?

Harry Maguire posed a belated threat as England resorted to long balls in the closing stages against Japan at Wembley.

Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, at Wembley for BBC Radio 5 Live, said: "This is the exact situation no England fan wants. We've talked about it for over a season with this World Cup coming up. What do England do without Harry Kane?

"This is what England and Thomas Tuchel do not want. He doesn't have an answer to this question. Hence why we're seeing this new formation again, with the interchange and false nine.

"We've spoken about Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Dominic Solanke, Ollie Watkins. Nobody stuck their arm up and said, 'I'll be his replacement'. that's why we're seeing this."

Robinson added: "It was a very disappointing evening for Thomas Tuchel. The experiment that he tried in the first half with the front four clearly didn't work.

"It didn't take him long in the second half to change it. You do give England credit because when those changes were made there was a lot more cohesion.

"The one area that Thomas Tuchel has got a problem is if there is a problem with Harry Kane. If that happens, then England have a real problem after watching that."

Tuchel answered the question about an over-reliance on Kane, saying: "Well, why would Argentina not rely on Lionel Messi, or Portugal not rely on Cristiano Ronaldo? This is totally normal. Key figures left camp for us and we saw that a bit.

"We lacked a punch in the last 20 metres in both matches. We encouraged the players. It was difficult for us."

Kane's potential absence is an immediate concern, leaving Tuchel short of viable alternatives when he needs them most, especially given these two toothless performances without him.

English strikers are suddenly a malaise.

Only 10 English strikers have appeared in the Premier League in the current campaign, with Chelsea's 22-year-old Liam Delap the only one aged under 26.

Brighton's Danny Welbeck, who turns 35 at the end of the month, might just have had a good international break by not being involved.

Welbeck and Calvert-Lewin are the only English strikers to have scored 10 or more Premier League goals this season โ€“ with 43 scored by English strikers.

It's a far cry from the first season of the Premier League era in 1992-93, when 20 English strikers passed the 10-goal mark.

In recent years, however, what was already a steep decline has fallen off a cliff. Last season, only 67 goals were scored by English strikers, less than half the number in 2020-21.

Kane's departure from Tottenham for Germany has played a part, of course, but he left for Bayern in 2023 and English strikers still scored 96 goals in 2023-24.

The cupboard is bare, underscoring just how indispensable Kane is.

This was a sobering night for England and Tuchel. This performance demonstrated that they simple cannot live without Harry Kane.

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