“Stones’s first thought is to play, rather than clear the danger, so you have to accept he will take risks from time to time”.
Advertisement
The Manchester United star opted for a deep midfield role against Slovakia despite Allardyce agreeing pre-match with Rooney’s club boss, Jose Mourinho, that his best position remains in attack.
“They have been together for a long time with their manager and they have some good players so we knew it was going to be tough”.
“Using his experience with a team, and playing as a team member, it’s not for me to say where he’s going to play”.
Rooney made his 116th worldwide appearance during Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Slovakia, passing David Beckham to become England’s most-capped outfield player.
It meant the ghosts of England’s Euro 2016 exit at the hands of Iceland began to be laid to rest.
While it was a special day for Rooney as he set another national record, Adam Lallana celebrated his first senior goal for his country.
‘We are trying to fit him in, but he’s not a midfield player for me. “Of course, it was a disappointing moment in the summer but it’s football”.
The Liverpool midfielder was a bright spark in a fairly uninspiring England display, striking the post with one effort, before stealing the points with a 95th-minute victor.
This tactic appeared to contradict assertions from Allardyce in the build-up to the clash that he viewed Rooney as an attacker and intend to utilise him further forward than his predecessor Roy Hodgson had done during Euro 2016.
“If you want to be successful, you need to leave everything on the pitch”, he said. But the opposition were very tough. “I will have a check on it and see if it’s fully OK, but there were a few challenges that I felt could have earned him a yellow card but it didn’t come”, he told reporters. “It was only when we went a man down that they created more”.
Advertisement
Sturridge was so close to netting just three minutes after coming on when he glanced a close-range effort wide from an inviting Theo Walcott cross, and Lallana dragged a strike just past the post. Ten goals in 60 games and now one in 27 for England is not the return expected of a senior creative player.
