But the 23-year-old says there is no worry on his behalf about a lack of goals, as his start to 2016-17 mirrors last season, when he failed to score in his first six Premier League games and ended the campaign with the Golden Boot after scoring 25 goals.
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Kane is yet to score a goal in a competitive game for either club or country in 2016-17, last finding the back of the net in an worldwide friendly against Turkey in May.
Rooney was deployed in midfield in Sunday’s World Cup qualifying win over Slovakia with Allardyce admitting his skipper had dropped deeper than anticipated as England searched for their last-gasp victor.
“Unfortunately there was a lot of talk last year and I managed to prove a lot of people wrong, so people will talk this year as well”, he said.
“People will talk this year as well, but it’s part of football”. It’s what they’re doing.
“I am a confident player”. I played in that role and helped us win the game.
“I am using his experience to its maximum on the field as captain and football player – and encouraging him to play as a captain and play very, very well, which I thought he did”.
Harry Kane again looked lethargic in attack, Raheem Sterling was short of an end product and Wayne Rooney’s role in the team remains ripe for debate.
“It is hard sometimes when teams like Slovakia drop off and make it very hard to play through, you have to be very patient and make sure that ball is spot on every time or they will cut it out”.
But Allardyce said: “This is the most decorated outfield player in England”.
Despite the furore, Allardyce labelled Rooney’s performance in Slovakia as “brilliant” as a last-gasp Adam Lallana strike handed the England a winning start in their quest to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation.
“The ankle is okay now”, he said.
“Yes, I’d like him to get forward a bit more”.
“It was just a matter of time, it was a silly thing for him to do because he was on a yellow”.
However, he added: “But I think I saw a little nervous tension and it’s bound to be in the back of their mind”.
England were embarrassingly knocked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland, which led to Hodgson’s exit and Allardyce taking over.
“We had a bit of a laugh and a joke with the manager [Allardyce] about it, but it’s something that happened”. “Sometimes you’ve just got to stick it out until the last minute and thankfully we got the goal”.
“It has (become a talking point) now, on social media”.
And if you are playing well and contributing, that’s great’.
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“I felt I did that and I felt in the second half, I had a couple of chance that got blocked and a couple of half chances, but all I can do is put myself in the right positions”.
