New England manager Sam Allardyce has confirmed that Wayne Rooney is set to remain in the role of England captain despite the managerial change.
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England record goalscorer Wayne Rooney will retire from worldwide football after the 2018 World Cup in Russian Federation. “I’ve enjoyed every minute”, the Manchester United star said.
On what things he and his coaching staff had looked at when selecting players, Allardyce said: “We’ve looked at all avenues, what sort of pre-season they’ve had, what happened last season, this season, look at balance of the squad”.
Marcus Rashford wasnt included by Allardyce, despite going on as a substitute to score Uniteds injury-time victor against Hull in the Premier League on Saturday in his first appearance of the season. “Hopefully he scores goals for the U21s and gives me a decision to make next time”.
Rooney must wait until Tuesday to discover if he is being retained as England captain by Allardyce.
“You would hope the captain would make a decision on the pitch if he felt it needed to (be made)”, said Allardyce, 61.
Allardyce was keen to stress that Rooney will play in a similar role to that at United, bringing an end to Hodgson’s midfield experiment with the 30-year-old that was used for the first time in England’s opening group game against Russian Federation in France.
The England manager had refused to confirm whether Rooney would be his skipper since being appointed in July, but said on Monday the Manchester United man will be his skipper.
“But because of his inclusion only as a substitute – as good as it was against Hull City – I think that the value of having probably a full game with Gareth will be invaluable to him and, later on, for us”.
Barkley has scored two goals in his first four games for Everton this season but Allardyce chose to recall Leicester’s Danny Drinkwater and hand a first call-up to West Ham winger Michail Antonio instead.
Allardyce replaced Roy Hodgson as England boss after the country’s disastrous Euro 2016 campaign but has resisted the opportunity to pass on the armband.
“We made our mind up, all my staff”. We have bad memories from the last game obviously. “I’m excited by the players involved at the moment and, although there have been questions about my future, I said straight after the Euros that I wanted to still be involved”, he added. Allardyce has even clarified Rooney’s position, saying that his captain will play as a No. 10.
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Allardyce was criticised by some fans while at West Ham for not playing what they called “the West Ham way”.
