How to fill a Kirby-shaped hole?
There is a Fran Kirby-shaped hole in the No 10 position that Ella Toone is struggling to fill. To be fair to Toone, few could replace the ingenuity and guile of Kirby. Toone is a different style of player, a very, very good one with bags of potential, but more box-to-box. Against Haiti, Toone had most success shifted to the left and struggled to make things happen down the middle. If Sarina Wiegman is not going to change the shape to make the midfield work most effectively with the sum of its parts, then Lauren James is the more natural successor to Kirby….
