For all England’s attacking talent, are their forwards lacking international experience?

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Foden 3rd top scorer with 4 goals 

England undoubtedly have one of the best and most exciting set of attacking players right now. Perhaps the best at Euro 2024. Perhaps the best in the world. In terms of market value, solely from the Three Lions attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers in their Euros squad, they boast a combined €930 million in market value between just 10 players. Vastly contributing to England having the most valuable squad at the Euros at €1.52 billion. Five of the top 10 players with the most goal contributions in Europe’s top five leagues this season in all competitions are English.

Nevertheless, Harry Kane aside, for all their talent, England are severely lacking in attacking players with experience of scoring goals at international tournaments. In fact the team is lacking savvy of scoring international goals in general. With just four international goals, Phil Foden is England’s third top scorer in their Euro 2024 squad. I’m sure you have already worked this out but it’s worth repeating – that means only two players have scored five or more international goals – Kane (63) and Bukayo Saka (11).

Kane is sure to be England’s main avenue of goals at the Euros this summer, and there’s little reason not to be confident that he will deliver again. He was the golden boot winner at the 2018 World Cup. Four goals at Euro 2020 and two at the 2022 World Cup. Add to that he’s the Three Lions all-time top scorer – he has the experience. However, those around him, whilst being extremely skilled, haven’t ever really earned their stripes on the international stage. Perhaps bar Saka who scored three at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and, as mentioned, has 11 international goals.

Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling were left behind. Between them they have 37 England goals. Astonishingly, that’s the exact same amount of goals as every player in the entire England squad other than Kane combined. It’s no doubt that duo suffered hugely underwhelming seasons with their clubs, but perhaps their experience of knowing how to do it with England on the international stage could have helped the Three Lions. Jarrod Bowen, who is part of Gareth Southgate’s 26 man squad, is still yet to score for his nation in eight caps.

When we compare the amount of goals in this England squad to other nations competing at Euro 2024, it’s not the prettiest of reading. It certainly doesn’t equate to the squad market value table where England are top. As you can see in the graphic above, Southgate’s squad actually have the 13th most amount of goals from the 24 nations with exactly 100 goals overall. They are level with Spain, but behind the likes of Ukraine, Switzerland, Serbia and Poland. Portugal have over double the amount of goals in their squad (229).

When we look at England tournament squads in recent history and the number of international goals they had, this particular squad doesn’t fair too badly. From the last 8 tournaments this Euro 2024 England squad has the fourth most goals in it with 100 – only behind the 2010 World Cup (127), the 2022 World Cup (118) and the 2014 World Cup (115). However, the only reason behind that is Kane. He is the all-time top scorer and contributes 63% of England’s international goals at this Euros. Nevertheless, England will need other players to step up and help Kane if they are to go all the way, and will have to rely on talent rather than experience when it comes to their international goalscoring records.