England boss Southgate defends decision to sub Kane with his side chasing a goal against Scotland

England boss Gareth Southgate made the bold call to substitute captain Harry Kane for the second successive game despite his side needing a goal because he wanted to add more energy to his team.

The Tottenham striker was replaced by Marcus Rashford with 16 minutes left against Scotland at Wembley on Friday night.

Kane was also been taken off late on with England holding on to a slender 1-0 lead against Croatia on Sunday. 

Jack Grealish was also introduced late on but England could not find a way through the Scotland defence as they were held to a goalless draw. 

Southgate said: ‘I felt we needed a few more runs in behind, I felt Marcus would give us that energy and we had to try and get the win at that point. We have to make these decisions based on what we see.

‘The whole team we can look at ourselves. That starts with me, we have to be better, we know we didn’t do enough to win the game, not enough attempts on goal and that is something we have to go and have a look at over the next few days.’

Southgate said his young team would learn from their disappointment.

He said: ‘It was a frustrating night, we know we can play better. We have to give Scotland huge credit, they defended valiantly, they played well and in the end we didn’t do enough to win the game.

‘If you’re not going to win a game in a tournament you have to make sure you don’t lose it. We understand it’s a disappointment for our supporters especially, but we have to dust ourselves down.’ 

‘I know exactly where this team is,’ he added. ‘It is a very young team, a lot of them won’t have experienced a game under that intensity or pressure so that is a huge learning for them.

‘What we have to do is make sure we improve in the next game.’