England player ratings: Liverpool duo flop badly; Rashford impresses

Oli Fisher

England produced another lacklustre performance but were bailed out by a late Harry Kane goal as they beat Slovenia 1-0 at Wembley.

Glenn Hoddle was asked to pick a Man of the Match in the 87th minute, and his puzzled response said it all.

The biggest cheer from the crowd prior to the opening goal came a minute later when a pitch invader covered more ground in 30 seconds than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain managed in 64 minutes.

Harry Kane’s 94th minute finish, his 14th goal since the start of September, bailed out Gareth Southgate’s men just as Scotland thought they would make England sweat for another week.

Starting XI

JOE HART: Had little to do until the last 10 minutes when he was well alerted to come off his line and prevent an easy 1-on-1 opportunity. Was somewhat lucky not to give a penalty away on Ilicic. 6

KYLE WALKER: Struggled both with passing and positional play. Looks a completely different player in a Manchester City shirt, but did pop up with the assists late on. 6

JOHN STONES: Some poor passing and received a booking for a poor tackle. Seems to be uncomfortable when being relied upon to play out from the back. 5

GARY CAHILL: Looked solid enough for most of the night but when Slovenia did get forward the Chelsea man got dragged into looking nervy. 6

RYAN BERTRAND: Got forward plenty and managed to receive the ball in good positions but never capitalised and was caught out on the left side when the opposition countered. 5

JORDAN HENDERSON: Not a good night at all for the captain. Slow and laboured when in possession, given the run around and offered zero creativity alongside a similarly negative player in Dier. 4

ERIC DIER: A disappointing performance; another player that does the same job much better for Tottenham. 5

ALEX OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN: Looks completely devoid of form and confidence and was rightfully hooked just after the hour mark. Needs game time at club level or he will be a passenger in Moscow. 4

RAHEEM STERLING: Started off centrally to begin with where his pace is dribbling ability were wasted, but did improve when taking up a wider position. Still struggling for end product. 5

MARCUS RASHFORD: England’s best player on the night, not that he had much competition. Made intelligent runs and was the only Three Lions’ player to even remotely stretch the otherwise comfortable visitors. 7

HARRY KANE: The matchwinner when all is said and done. Was feeding off scraps for most of the game as the three behind him tried to snatch the headlines, but played a patient game and was rewarded late on. 6

Substitutes

JESSE LINGARD (FOR OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN, 64′): Took up a position behind the striker but didn’t have the impact Southgate would have wanted. Gave the ball away a couple of times in bad positions. 5

MICHAEL KEANE (FOR STERLING, 85′): N/A