Soccer Football - World Cup - UEFA Qualifiers - Group K - Serbia v England - Stadion Rajko Mitic, Belgrade, Serbia - September 9, 2025 England's Harry Kane celebrates after the match REUTERS/Andrew Boyers
(Reuters) -England captain Harry Kane said their 5-0 demolition of Serbia on Tuesday in World Cup qualifying should be the template for how they want to play following criticism of their start to coach Thomas Tuchel's tenure.
England had won all four of their Group K qualifiers coming into the match in Belgrade but Tuchel's tactics and team selections came in for scrutiny following laboured wins over Andorra, Albania and Latvia.
Tuchel's side were much more impressive on Tuesday, however, with Kane, Noni Madueke, Ezri Konsa, Marcus Rashford and Marc Guehi all getting on the scoresheet.
"There's been a lot of noise around the outside, but we've been happy with what we've been doing," Kane told broadcaster ITV.
"It's not always been easy against opposition who are sitting in a block of 11 when we have to break them down and be patient.
"We knew tonight would be a really big test against better opposition and better players, we said we wanted to show what we can do especially without the ball with the high pressure and make it difficult for them."
England are now within touching distance of qualifying for next year's World Cup finals in North America and Kane said they must use the win over the Serbs as a template.
"This is the time when the competition starts, the formation and the way we play and the style is going to be set in stone," he added.
"Of course, there might be a few games where we have to change a little bit depending on opposition, but we want to play our way – we want to be on the front foot and win the ball back quick and when we lose the ball, recover well...
"You could say today was the perfect template and we're going to have difficult games from now until the World Cup but we'll use this as a starting point and the standard's been really high."
England next face Wales in a friendly on October 9 before taking on Latvia in a qualifier five days later.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
