Alan Shearer Says He Would Have Jamie Vardy On The Bench For England

Former England striker thinks Leicester forward can work as an impact player

The Alan Shearer would have Jamie Vardy on the England bench in order to accommodate Wayne Rooney in the starting XI, but actually thinks Roy Hodgson’s bigger issues are at the other end of the pitch as they head to Euro 2016.

Former England striker knows a thing or two about goalscoring and the attacking trio of Rooney, Vardy and Harry Kane looked impotent at Wembley against Portugal on Thursday with the latter two - the top-scorers in last season’s Premier League let’s not forget - forced wide and away from the opposition box. Rooney struggled to make the killer runs into the gap created and the whole square-pegs-in-round-holes system was flawed.

The Shearer, who Tweeted “If you're going to play Kane and Vardy then at least play them as centre-forward and not wingers. Or what's the point?” during the Portugal match, would give the England captain the opportunity to impress against Russia next Saturday in the opening fixture and would then reassess. “Rooney would be in my XI for the first game and then it’s up to him,” Shearer told The Independent.

As would Harry Kane. He’s earned the right to be England’s No 1 striker and again the rest is up to him. There was still one or two asking the question at the start of the season: could he do it for a second successive season? I always thought he could.

Well, whoever asked the question has now had their answer. An emphatic answer. I’m a big fan of his, I like the way he plays, he does most things very well and, of course, as a forward you have to score goals and he’s done that for two seasons now.