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.
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Then, in the 95th minute, Adam Lallana produced a hopeful shot which Slovakia goalkeeper Matus Kozacik should have saved.
Rooney, making a record 116th appearance for an England outfield player, adopted a deep-lying midfield role for much of the game despite Allardyce having said he would play in a number 10 position. Such are the fine margins football managers live by.
But in Sunday’s match Rooney started in a withdrawn role and dropped deeper in the second half following the introduction of Dele Alli.
England skipper Wayne Rooney believes the uproar regarding his deployment as a midfielder has been a huge overreaction after boss Sam Allardyce was forced to swat away questions following his side’s victory in Slovakia.
Rooney, who played his 116th worldwide to become England’s most capped outfield player ahead of David Beckham, played in the midfield position where previous manager Roy Hodgson deployed him at Euro 2016.
Allardyce suggested post-match that it was not up to him to dictate where Rooney played and that he had the freedom to operate wherever he felt was necessary to impact upon the game.
“Even when he is trying to dominate play, he does not give the impression that he is evolving into another Paul Scholes or Andrea Pirlo”, wrote Oliver Kay in The Times, London.
“He has always been an instinctive player, so it remains hard to see how he will develop the intellect that is needed if he is truly to master that kind of role”. He may not like opera or read as many European novels as Hodgson, but his gruff exterior hides an intelligence rooted in an ability to get inside footballers’ heads and make them play better.
Allardyce’s England might have gone one better against Slovakia than Roy Hodgson’s team managed in June, when they laboured to stalemate in St Etienne, but problems still linger as they left it late to break down opponents reduced to 10 men after Martin Skrtel’s 57th-minute sending off. “I am happy where I’m playing”.
“The performance he gave as a captain and worldwide player with great standing was very good”. But Allardye sounded positive.
“I’m not really superstitious but I’m going to keep it. It can never come better than that”, he said.
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At Bolton Wanderers, World Cup-winning French striker Youri Djorkaeff enjoyed a golden spell at a time when many pundits had written him off, playing until he was 36, while Ivan Campo and Jay Jay Okocha also flourished in their 30s under Allardyce. “We have to try to be more effective breaking defences down”.
