Top 10 English finishers: Watkins and Serie A striker make case to back up Kane | OneFootball

Harry Kane is by a long distance, the best finisher in Europe, but which attackers are making the best claim to serve as the England captain’s stand-in?

Thomas Tuchel has gathered an oversized squad together for the final friendlies before he names his England party for the World Cup.

Kane’s place is as safe as anyone’s with legitimate hope of going to the USA this summer, but what if – God forbid – Tuchel needs to find an alternative source of goals?

Thanks to football analysis experts Gradient Sports, we present the 10 English players with the highest shooting grades across Europe’s top five leagues.

Across a vast range of metrics, Gradient grades every player out of 100, measuring execution and outcome to offer the most insightful and accurate view of individual performance.

Here are the 10 highest-graded attacking players for shooting…

=10) Keinan Davis (Udinese) 78.1

The Udinese striker’s shooting grade ranks him 20th in Serie A. If Thomas Tuchel is remotely interested, he best get there quick before Davis’s Jamaican passport comes through.

=10) Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa) 78.1

Not a massive drop-off from last season (81.2) but his actual goalscoring numbers are certainly down and deteriorating year on year, from 19 in 2023/24, and 16 last term, to only nine so far. He makes our list of biggest drop-offs this season in the Premier League.

9) Anthony Gordon (Newcastle United) 78.2

Gordon is graded similarly in the Champions League (78.7) despite scoring a goal every 77 minutes in Europe compared to 291 in the Premier League. Will Newcastle miss him when he goes?

8) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (Everton) 78.9

“I wouldn’t have thought he was a million miles off the group of England players,” said David Moyes earlier this month. “The World Cup might come a bit quickly, but who knows what happens after that?” A Republic of Ireland call-up, possibly.

7) Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) 79.1

We all know Saka wants to get inside on to his left foot, with only one Englishman grading higher for left-footed shooting: Bournemouth’s Marcus Tavernier.

6) Jarrod Bowen (West Ham) 79.6

Bowen makes the top 10 despite more than half of his shots being assessed to be below expectation. As one of the players on the fringes of Thomas Tuchel’s squad, improving that stat would be a sure-fire way to get on the plane. Or at least getting it back closer to the league-leading 90.4 he was graded last season.

5) Marcus Rashford (Barcelona) 81.1

Rashford was graded 51st in the Premier League last season. Now he’s 14th in La Liga. It’s almost like he’s actually trying…

4) Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa) 82.3

Rogers is the Premier League’s highest-graded Englishman, though only ninth in the league and the lone England representative in the top 15. Indeed, for pressured shooting and shooting in open play, he remains the only England-eligible plyer in the top 10s.

3) Mason Greenwood (Marseille) 83.7

Nope, not going down this road again.

2) Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid) 84.1

The Real Madrid star could use some evidence of his usefulness since Thomas Tuchel seems unconvinced that he’s worth the hassle. In La Liga, Bellingham’s grade is bettered only by Kylian Mbappe and Real Sociedad’s Goncalo Guedes.

1) Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) 99.3

Of course Kane. Not only is he the best Englishman, he’s the best of anyone in Europe – and it’s not even close. The second-highest grade is Michael Olise on 91.3, with Harry Wilson third on 90.9.