The stuffed Lions that travelled with the team during their ill-fated Euro 2016 campaign have been consigned to storage but as Allardyce reflected on Adam Lallana’s 94th-minute victor in his first game as national boss, he held a newly-acquired memento in his hand.
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On the occasion of his 116th cap, breaking David Beckham’s outfield record, he was surprisingly asked to perform a deep-lying midfield role.
Despite the lingering fall-out from the Iceland result, which prompted his predecessor Roy Hodgson’s immediate resignation, Allardyce said his players were “a happy bunch, not a damaged bunch”. “Adam scored the goal to get us off to an excellent start”.
“Yes, he’s not to forgotten that we want him to score goals”.
“People might talk now or if I don’t score in the next five or six games”.
However, their performance has widely been met by negative reviews, with the display in Trnava drawing comparisons with the one England produced when the two sides played out a stalemate during the Euros.
“I think I didn’t score in my first 7 or 8 games for Spurs last season, but I then went on to win the Golden Boot”.
“Today Wayne played wherever he wanted to”.
“He holds a lot more experience at worldwide football than me as an global manager”.
“With a new manager coming in you want to get him a good victory to start off with, he has been great all week. Instead, England’s play was disjointed and uncertain”.
“He’s won everything at Manchester United, more or less, at Champions League and domestic level”.
Eric Dier and Liverpool captain, Jordan Henderson were in the midfield role with Dier playing as a defensive midfielder. “We were delighted about that”. “The only thing I mentioned about the past is to learn from it and not to feel like that again”.
“It is a boost that we won and hopefully we can kick on now in the rest of the group games”. We had a bit of a laugh and a joke with the manager (Allardyce) about it, but it’s something that happened.
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“Adam Lallana is one of our most skilful players but for all but the last few seconds of Sunday’s game I thought his final product was lacking”, said Redknapp, “Then he pops up with the victor and, although it was a little fortunate, that goal will have done Lallana the world of good”.
