This article is part of our The Clean Sheets series.
Laird
Harry Kane briefly took the EPL goal lead Saturday thanks to a hat trick against the worst team in the league, Leicester City. In DFS games, I am fairly certain that Kane was 100 percent owned everywhere, and there was no chance someone had a winning lineup without him.
Amazingly, Spurs scored four goals (one was an own goal) against Leicester and didn't record a single assist. I'm not sure what to make of it, though a decent number of Kane's recent goals have been unassisted, and they haven't been penalties either (in fact, he missed a penalty and put in the rebound for one of them).
Thanks to his stellar play, he finally got his called up the England squad for their two matches this month. We have spoken on the podcast about who we think England's best forward is and we still maintain that Daniel Sturridge is the guy. Unfortunately, Sturridge has been ruled out for England thanks to a hip injury, so we won't get to see if he plays well with Kane.
So my question to you is this: if you were going to build an all-English Premier League team, would Kane be your first pick?
Pitner
That's a great question. As I was looking over the England squad recently, I was sort of shocked by England's lack of quality, proven midfielders. Obviously, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard have both retired from international competition, but the point remains.
In comparison, with Kane, Sturridge, Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck, the Three Lions' cupboard is pretty well-stocked with strikers. Given all those options at forward, yet some scarcity in the middle of the park, I'd probably go ahead and pick the player I believe is far and away England's best midfielder: Raheem Sterling.
From there, my second pick would definitely be a striker - likely Sturridge or Rooney because Kane would surely be off the board. That being said, you really couldn't go wrong with taking Kane. All the guy has done is score 27 goals in 33 total games this season.
Say you pick Kane and I go with Sterling, who do you think should be the next midfielder selected? And would you wait a few picks to target that player?
Laird
I couldn't hold this conversation to ourselves, so I asked podcast colleague Mike Gottlieb what he thought. He said his first choice would be Jordan Henderson, as he would want to control the field with a strong holding midfielder, and Henderson is by far the cream of the crop for England at the position.
At that point, it's a little light in the holding midfield spots. Michael Carrick will be 34 this summer, while 23 year old Jonjo Shelvey? Jack Colback? Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers, John Stones and Jon Flanagan, but none of them have shown much this season to warrant serious consideration in the back. I think picking English players for a Premier League team becomes very complicated at all of the defensive positions. Maybe Leighton Baines and Nathaniel Clyne, but would you really take the former if you're starting a team? No chance. Maybe the Ryan Bertrand/Clyne combination at Southampton is what we should see with the Three Lions.
There are plenty of attacking midfielders like Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and even Theo Walcott (insert nagging injury here). You could even throw Stewart Downing in there, though he looks run down of late and is on the wrong side of 30.
Up front, I wouldn't sleep on Charlie Austin or Danny Ings. I think I'd take either one of those guys over Welbeck at this point. And I'd think long and hard about Fraser Forster (pre knee injury) over Joe Hart eight days a week.
Pitner
I definitely agree with you on Forster (pre injury) over Hart. Furthermore, if we're building an all-English squad, Southampton is certainly among the top places to find talent.
Not only have they produced the likes of Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Chambers and Shaw, but the Saints also currently roster Clyne and Bertrand, as well as James Ward-Prowse and Jay Rodriguez. While the latter's knee injury probably will prevent him from appearing this season, he was plenty impressive last term. In his absence, Ward-Prowse has shown a knack for dangerous set-piece deliveries this season and is only 20 years old.
So now that I look at it again, it seems like England does have decent midfield depth, but various injuries have knackered their squad in that area this season.
That leaves me to examine their defense, which as you touched upon, is lacking some standout options, especially centrally. I'd venture to say that opposing strikers hardly lose sleep over having to face players like Phil Jagielka, Phil Jones or Chris Smalling the next day.
