Scotland defender Charlie Mulgrew has warned his team-mates they cannot afford to focus all their attention on prolific England attacker Harry Kane in tomorrow’s vital World Cup qualifier at Hampden Park.
Tottenham forward Kane is England’s main attacking threat, having topped the English Premier League scoring charts in the last two seasons.
Kane was injured for England’s last fixture, a 2-0 home victory against Lithuania in March, but manager Gareth Southgate’s line-up was still laden with talent.
Blackburn Rovers player Mulgrew says the 23-year-old is only a portion of the threat posed by tomorrow’s opponents at Hampden Park.
He said: “We can stop him but then who else is there? There’s so many of them.
“We can’t just pick out one to stop. If we stop one, then someone else will step up, like Jermain Defoe, and there’s Raheem Sterling as well.
“It’s a team of world-class players and we’ve got to be prepared and ready for it. We know all their possibilities, what they can do and what they can’t do.
“We need to turn up on the night and deliver.”
Mulgrew has challenged his team-mates to rise to the occasion, with Scotland manager Gordon Strachan having labelled the match a “must not lose” fixture this week.
Mulgrew believes his team-mates can cause England problems if they play to their potential.
The 31-year-old added: “Their players are always in our heads because of how good they are.
“I think it maybe sharpens us up a bit, though, and maybe sharpens our senses to realise how good these players are and all of a sudden we need to stop them.
“They are difficult nights, trust me they’re not easy. But we’ll all be giving everything we can to get something from the game.
“I suppose it is a good way to look at it, that we, too, have players who are very capable. We’ve got a lot of belief in there, we know we’ve got the quality there.
“The last few days training, some of the boys have been unbelievable.
“We’ve just got to believe in ourselves, get on the ball and feel we can cause them problems, too.”
