One Small Step for Big Sam...
Sam Allardyce's first game as England boss was very much a crunching drag down to earth, albeit without a massive bang. The honeymoon period is already over, in truth it never began. The truth is that this England side were in total disarray in the summer, and it is going to take more than a few days, as that's all Sam has had, to wash the stink of Hodgson from this side. It would be very easy to draw many conclusions from this game, to take this as a damning indictment of Sam's abilities as a manager and already start preparing for the inevitable disappointment of 2018.
But the truth is that things aren't that simply. Sam picked a very Hodgson side, and for the right reasons. His defensive options are limited, and with Smalling having not played at all, Clyne out of sorts, and Shaw back at United, there could be no massive defensive overhaul. With Jack Butland and Fraser Forster both injured, Joe Hart was guaranteed 90 minutes. Ahead of them, Eric Dier is the only holding midfielder England have, Jordan Henderson has played well enough this season to justify his inclusion ahead of Danny Drinkwater, and Wayne Rooney, who has also been excellent this season, was preferred to the out of sorts Dele Alli. Lallana and Sterling have been the two best players at England's disposal this season, and looked it on the pitch, and although picking Harry Kane proved to be a mistake, he is still England's number one striking option.
So what went wrong? Why didn't it work? Well the problem is complicated. And at the same time, very simple. This is an England team that don't know how to play as a team. And frankly I'm not surprised that Sam wasn't able to fix that overnight. There still remains a lack of cohesion between individuals. Players like Kane, so effective at club level, seem completely off the boil when putting on an England shirt, although admittedly the signs have been there for Spurs anyway this season and there's no doubt that Kane is going through a sticky patch. Lallana and Sterling were excellent, the two best and most dangerous players on the pitch, but even they, Sterling in particular, weren't able to reach the level that they've played for Liverpool and City this season.
And then there comes the Wayne Rooney problem. Because once again, he was playing in the wrong position. I said at the top that I had no problems with Rooney starting ahead of Dele Alli in the number 10 position, since the former was having a good season and the latter a rocky start. But Rooney didn't actually play as a 10 at all, which meant that England were lacking an effective link up between attack and defence, with Henderson running himself ragged trying to fill the gaps, and despite some excellent interplay and Henderson nearly setting away Sterling on two or three occasions, England were clearly missing a potent attacking threat.
The fact that Big Sam, and Rooney himself are trying to dismiss this problem is truly alarming, especially when even ITV picked up on the fact that Rooney's positional play was, either because of Sam's direction or Rooney's natural inclination, drilled into him by Roy, abysmal, particularly in the first half when Slovakia had eleven men. Big Sam claims he can't stop Rooney playing where he wants. Rooney insists it's not an issue. All of it just adds up to the basic issue. Big Sam doesn't know what to do with his captain, but cannot drop him. This would be at least understandable, but there wasn't a natural number 10 playing in that position against Slovakia, if anything Henderson was the more advanced of the two. It would have taken nothing to push Rooney up a few yards, to have him creating space for other players and link the play better, especially when this is exactly what he is doing, reasonably efficiently for Man United.
As such, when Dele Alli came on, a naturally creative player who plays in a more advanced role and links the play, England looked far more likely to score, with Alli slightly off the pace but still offering more than Rooney or Hendo. Lallana, the most lively player on the pitch, hit the post, whilst substitute Theo Walcott missed several guilt-edged chances, and was correctly denied by the offside flag, before eventually, the excellent Lallana stole the winning goal. If it wasn't deserved by England, it certainly was by Lallana himself.
This is an England side that just needs one or two truly creative players. At the moment it has the core of a good team, but is crying out for a spark, especially in games like this one against Slovakia, when we're struggling to break teams down. But above all else, what Big Sam needs is time. Time with the players, time to learn and understand what went wrong for Roy and how to fix the main problems.
Because make no mistake, Sam made mistakes in this game. It can't all be blamed on the Hodgson hangover. Rooney needs to either play further up the pitch, where he's effective, or not played at all, it's as simple as that. Likewise, Harry Kane needs to find some form by October, or Big Sam has to be looking to Daniel Sturridge, who should have played decidedly more than ten minutes, as he's easily England's most dangerous player.
But all in all, it's far too early to judge Big Sam. Expecting him to magically turn around a side with limited player options, fixed in an ingrained system, that is rotten and damaged on so many levels, in just a handful of days, is overly optimistic. Hodgson has fundamentally damaged this England team, stained so many of our country's talented young footballers, and if Big Sam wants to fix the damage, he's going to need time and support.
But hopefully it'll be better than this.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Dan Evans was desperately unlucky, but truly exceptional.
- Konta and Edmund also out, Murray through so far.
- England's cricketers. Wow. How good are they at ODI cricket?
- And Rosberg cuts the gap further to Hamilton. Game on.
No comments:
Post a Comment