Tuchel is considered to have built his World Cup attack around Kane, with other forwards being picked that complement the 32-year-old and his desire to drop deep. That system worked almost perfectly against Croatia, with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford happy to run beyond their skipper.
Asked about Kane’s penchant for wandering, Mills said: “I think that’s always going to be the case. Harry Kane has never been blessed with pace, so it’s not like he’s lost a yard of pace. He’s always been incredibly intelligent in the way that he plays.
“He often plays as a number 9, as a 10, as a 9.5 if you like, dropping into those positions. So, to do that, you do need pace in the wing areas. You have to stretch the game in some way, shape or form. So, you need those players that are going to run in behind.
“Bellingham will do that, Saka, (Noni) Madueke will do that – Rashford and (Anthony) Gordon on the other side will do that and stretch the game, which allows Kane to drop into those positions. That’s just fairly standard football. It’s not particularly rocket science being able to do that.
“Sometimes, obviously, it’s not always easy to execute that because you have an opposition trying to stop you and dictate the tempo of play. I think the only concern is that Harry Kane is our focal point. If anything happens to Harry, you do start to wonder where we go from there.”
