Wayne Rooney has declared he is happy to operate in a midfield role for England under new manager Sam Allardyce.
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Sam Allardyce believes England’s players are emerging from the ordeal of their calamitous defeat by Iceland at Euro 2016, despite the manager admitting he has seen for the first time how the pressure of playing for the national team can hold them back.
Allardyce declared himself happy with Rooney’s performance but curiously suggested that he had deferred to his skipper over where he played and even expressed surprise at how far he dropped.
But he said the nasty-looking incident had not left him with any ill-effects, and he is confident of being available for Tottenham’s first game after the worldwide break, which comes against Stoke City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday.
“Once the team was announced, a lot of people thought I was going to play higher, but I think it suits me for this team, for the way we play. Mine and Wayne’s relationship, as we grow, will always be to promote him wherever he plays”.
“Of course it was a disappointing moment in the summer but it’s football, it’s what makes and breaks you as a player”.
“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.
Much of the post-match debate centred on the performance of captain Wayne Rooney, a player Allardyce said was entitled to a free role due to his years of service as an England worldwide.
“He has had it at Manchester United, under many different managers, played down the right, the left, centre forward, in behind, centre midfield”. “I can’t stop Wayne playing there”, he said. 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. He read it very well, we won the game and dominated the game, outplaying the opposition.
“I haven’t asked what their biggest fear is”, he said.
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“We wanted to get off to a winning start, and we fully deserved the win”, Kane said.
