Gareth Southgate ‘concern’ over England goals could give Callum Wilson a World Cup boost

Gareth Southgate admitted that England’s over-reliance on Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling is a ‘concern’ after his side drew 0-0 with Italy on Saturday - a problem that could be answered by Callum Wilson.

The Three Lions manager started Roma’s Tammy Abraham upfront at Molineux and only named two out and out strikers in the squad for the recent Nations League matches, with Tottenham leading-man Kane the other. England enjoyed 60% possession, played 642 passes and had 12 shots, but only put four on target and failed to beat Italy stopper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

The performance once again drew criticism of Southgate, who is said to be far too negative a manager for such a bright and exciting crop of attacking talent. His inclusion of just two number nines in the squad has raised questions about his reliance on Spurs man Kane to perform, while former Chelsea youngster Abraham - after an impressive spell in Serie A - failed to make the desired impact.

And Southgate admitted that his reliance on Kane and Manchester City winger Sterling is a concern, but claimed that this period of games was a chance to ‘look at different players’.

"Clearly across these four games we're needing to look at different players ahead of the World Cup," he said. "Today was part of that process. We knew on the back of a physically tough game in Germany the other night, also to refresh the team was going to be important.

"It's the same as I said yesterday - of course you're wanting to win the games and we're disappointed not to win the game. I think we had two or three very good chances that we have to take. You don't get loads of chances in games against the top-level teams, that's how it is.

"We'd like to have created more given the amount of