Charlie Wyett: Wayne Rooney would listen to Jose Mourinho so why doesn’t he do the same with Sam Allardyce?
Three Lions boss admitted that captain was ignoring his instructions and doing as he wished during Slovakia win
BIG SAM is the England manager. It certainly is not Wayne Rooney.
Yet the captain once again took matters into his own hands against the wishes of the boss.
Rooney was right to overrule Roy Hodgson against Wales at Euro 2016 following the ridiculous decision to let Harry Kane take corners.
But the new national coach has, potentially, an even greater problem with Rooney.
Sam Allardyce spoke of his relief at getting off to a winning start in this World Cup qualifying campaign, even though it was far from perfect.
Yet even though he said Rooney could play where he wanted, Allardyce was honest enough to admit his skipper was playing in a deeper position than he would have preferred.
In other words, Rooney was doing what he wanted.
Had that player been at West Ham or Sunderland, they would have been substituted or at the very least, been given a verbal ear-bashing on the pitch from the big bloke in the technical area.
Allardyce stressed Rooney, 31 next month, has more international experience than himself — which is true.
Although this was his 116th appearance for England — breaking David Beckham’s record for an outfield player — Rooney has been no more successful than Allardyce who has only been in charge for 90 minutes.
The frustrating thing about Rooney is that he is still capable of delivering a moment of pure class, as he did for Manchester United at Hull, to create the winner for Marcus Rashford.
Like Beckham towards the end of his career, though, the current team captain continues to polarise opinion.
According to Allardyce afterwards, Rooney was “brilliant” — but the manager was not kidding anyone.
He was not brilliant at all. And he was also not playing in the correct position, further up the pitch, where Rooney says he plays his best football.
After returning as a No 10 for Jose Mourinho at United, Rooney should be using his undoubted experience and skill to create opportunities and maybe score a few more goals behind Kane.
Rooney will once again start against Malta on October 8 — a match which will give the FA’s marketing men a fair amount of work over the next month.
There will still be a decent gate at Wembley but looking at this group of players, the fans will come for an evening out rather than 90 minutes of super-charged excitement.
The sight of Rooney plugging away in midfield, losing possession then being forced to try and win the ball back, does not exactly whet the appetite.
Against Malta, surely, he will stop trying to hold hands with Eric Dier in the defensive midfield position.
Ahead of this opening qualifier, the team's talisman confirmed he will retire after the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Having won their most difficult group game — against a country ranked only 11 places lower in 24th place — England will almost undoubtedly finish top of the group.
The Euro qualifying campaign was impressive with ten wins and just three goals conceded. But we should not kid ourselves the games were outstanding.
Last night’s tedious match was similar to the 1-0 win over Estonia in October 2014 when Raheem Sterling claimed to be too tired to train a few days before.
Bizarrely, in this small city 40 miles north of the capital, Bratislava, some of the England players looked as though they were jaded.
Allardyce wants a winter break but some of this lot look as though they need a September rest.
Keeper Joe Hart is the one player who is fresh as a daisy — albeit low on confidence.
He bagged the easiest of clean sheets here but life will be tougher at Torino, particularly when he make his debut in front of the notorious fans of Atalanta on Sunday.
Striker Kane continues to lack sharpness for club and country. The dismal service, particularly in the first half, did not help but nevertheless, he does not look himself.
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But at least the Spurs star no longer takes corners.
Rooney was back in charge of set-pieces for Allardyce and one free-kick in particular towards Jordan Henderson was impressive.
Although he remains a fine player and a good captain, Rooney must remember to begin listening to the manager
You have to wonder if he’d do it with Mourinho...