He added: “I’ve done it my whole career and suddenly it’s big news”.
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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.
England boss Sam Allardyce made the day of a Slovakian kitman following England’s last-gasp World Cup qualifying victory – by leaving him Raheem Sterling’s jersey and Wayne Rooney’s captain’s armband.
Wayne Rooney, left, and Sam Allardyce at England press conference, City Arena, Trnava, September 3.
‘Of course, they will always prefer the stronger team.
“There is only one place at the World Cup”.
“I think they were a bit nervous coming here, but not in the week building up”, Allardyce told reporters in Trnava before returning to England with his players.
Gareth Southgate admits he was not ready to replace Roy Hodgson following Euro 2016, though the England Under-21 manager is open to taking charge of the senior team in the future.
“I think it was possession for possession’s sake for the opening 45 minutes, rather than trying to break the opposition down”, Allardyce said.
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. But they did not have clear chances, so that is why we regret it, the 34-year-old added.
But Adam Lallana finally made the breakthrough in injury time when he bundled home his first global goal to secure all three points in what was, arguably, England’s most hard qualifier.
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Allardyce has warned Rooney that he needs to start scoring goals. He’s been a goalscorer all his life and I want him to do that again, but he reads a game as he reads it.
