“I can’t stop Wayne playing there”, said the manager.
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Allardyce had to wait 64 minutes to see his side have a shot on target and faced questions about playing captain Wayne Rooney in a deep midfield role.
“We were all disappointed from the Euros – it wasn’t just the fans, it was the players as well – so we wanted to give a good performance, and hopefully win”, he said.
Rooney indicated that is where he can best serve the team, and Allardyce is according him the respect 116 caps deserve.
However, for much of a lacklustre contest in Trnava it looked like England would be frustrated with a re-run of the goalless draw the teams shared in their last clash during the group stage at Euro 2016 in Saint-Etienne in June.
“I think that he holds a lot more experience at global football than me as an worldwide manager”.
However, the new manager concededed that even he was surprised by how deep the Manchester United forward played against Slovakia. It’s got us a last-minute victor.
In the meantime, enjoying loads of possession but sometimes having to win ugly may become a familiar theme, coupled with the fact that once again England have got lucky with the quality – or lack of it – of their group and will only come up against formidable opposition when the crunch comes in just under two years.
Sam Allardyce vowed to defer to captain Wayne Rooney over his positioning after starting life as England manager with a last-gasp 1-0 win over Slovakia in World Cup qualifying.
He hit the post with a superb turn and shot on 75 minutes, and had another effort well saved.
“It was a great feeling, anyone will tell you it’s a dream to score for your country as a kid”. “Adam scored the goal to get us off to an excellent start”.
The former manager often said Lallana would soon add goals to his game and here he was, in the last second of his 27th worldwide, fulfilling Hodgson’s prophesy for another manager.
“I am a confident player”.
“It was going to be tough and I also thought we were very disciplined today at times”.
He pushed up into a more orthodox No. 10 role at half-time, only to retreat to a midfield holding role after Allardyce sent on Alli for Henderson.
Booked in the first half for catching Kane with a flailing arm, the former Liverpool centre-back saw red after crudely stamping on the same opponent’s calf as he knelt on the pitch.
Thus, it is important that Allardyce brings out the best in his captain and plays him in an advanced position rather than giving him the freedom to roam all over the field.
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“When you score in the last few seconds it’s a good feeling, I had one in the Premier League last season against Norwich, which was also nice”, he said. Plus they are very young, as a squad we are really young and when we get criticised we hurt – we really do.
