England’s Number Nine Crisis: Injury to Watkins Exposes Alarming Lack of Strikers Behind Star Harry Kane

England’s upcoming World Cup qualifier against Latvia in Riga will once again spotlight the team’s reliance on Harry Kane, whose superb form—18 goals in his past 10 matches—continues to paper over a concerning lack of depth at the centre-forward position.

The shortage was made acutely clear after Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, the only other out-and-out striker in the squad, was ruled out of the Tuesday night fixture. Watkins, who deputised for the slightly injured Kane in the 3-0 win over Wales on Thursday, sustained an injury after colliding with the goalpost.

With Kane now expected to start and add to his record of 74 England goals, fans and staff are grappling with a genuine crisis in depth.

Remarkably, the scarcity of options is underlined by statistics from the current season: only seven English players who can be truly classified as an orthodox centre-forward have featured in the Premier League.

Of this tiny group, Liam Delap of Chelsea is the only one under the age of 26. The other six established names include: Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Eddie Nketiah, Dominic Solanke, Watkins, Danny Welbeck, and Callum Wilson.

This issue was explicitly noted by Under-21s manager Lee Carsley this week. “We need more centre forwards, we need more orthodox number nines which are capable of scoring goals,” Carsley stated, voicing concern that a tactical shift to playing strikers “out wide or… withdrawn” is eroding the traditional “poacher” and “focal point” role.

While senior team boss Thomas Tuchel enjoys a luxury of options across other positions, the question of who backs up Kane for the World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico is a selection headache of a different kind.

With England just a win away from qualifying for the summer tournament, the race to be Kane’s back-up is wide open. A recent BBC Sport analysis compiled five alternative options, noting that they collectively possess just 25 England goals—a stark contrast to Kane’s monumental tally.