England vs Wales: Wayne Rooney makes strong case for remaining as Roy Hodgson’s middle-man at Euro 2016

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James Olley13 June 2016

Jack Wilshere may have ended up as the fall guy as Roy Hodgson sought to accommodate Wayne Rooney against Russia but rather than hold a grudge, the Arsenal midfielder hailed him as England’s best player.

Rooney produced one of his most influential displays in a tournament for years as he sprayed balls left and right in a deep-lying midfield role approximating the one former Manchester United team—mate Paul Scholes adopted at club level towards the end of his career.

The 30-year-old’s performance allowed England to assert a measure of control over Russia while still carrying a goal threat from midfield; he had a good chance to score from the edge of the box in each half, in the first with a well struck volley and later a placed effort which goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev did brilliantly to tip onto the post.

Hodgson’s insistence on including Rooney was vindicated even if it came at the expense of a player he was so desperate to include in his final 23-man squad that he ignored a season-long absence through injury.

“He’s fantastic,” said the 24-year-old of Rooney. “I watched him towards the end of the season playing for United in that deeper role and people were saying ‘can he do it?’

“I’m sitting there thinking ‘he’s doing it and he’s the best player on the pitch’. He’s that type of player who understands the game, he can pick up the ball, is comfortable on the ball and you saw his range of passing as well.

“I’ve said it before, I think he’s our best player and he has been for many years. To have someone like that in the team... because also he can still play up front. He has been dropping into midfield and getting on the ball, which is fantastic.

Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

“I think the midfield were all great, almost faultless. We moved it around. In the past, England teams have been accused of panicking on the ball, not keeping the ball and last night we attacked.

England vs Russia: Player Ratings

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“If we couldn’t go down one side, we came out, we kept the ball and played through midfield. I thought they did well.”

Rooney played in midfield towards the end of the domestic season at Old Trafford but he could not be deemed a specialist in the role like Wilshere, who replaced the England captain for the final 12 minutes at Stade Velodrome.

Russia were also happy to sit off England at times and Wales are unlikely to afford him the same time in possession on Thursday, when the two sides meet in Lens. Hodgson suggested that the 4-3-3 system deployed last weekend is not now the template for future performances with England having worked on greater tactical flexibility to counter the threats of their opponents.

“It would have been harder if Wayne hadn’t been playing in that position for Manchester United,” Hodgson said. “That’s what made it a solution for us or something we thought we would like to do.

“We definitely wanted Wayne in the team for this game, we wanted him to captain the team in the opening game for a number of reasons. And we also wanted to see [Raheem] Sterling and [Adam] Lallana in those wider positions because we thought they would cause the Russians some problems and I believe they did.

“When we selected our squad, we chose deliberately to take seven defenders and extra midfielders and attackers because we wanted options in those midfield and front positions to play 4-4-2, diamond and 4-3-3.

“It doesn’t take a lot of changing if we go from one to another because the principles we are working on remain the same and the players work at both systems in training sessions.”

Rooney’s individual position is not set in stone either, especially after Hodgson cited fatigue as the reason why was substituted.

“Don’t forget, he has not played in that position as often as he has played as a centre-forward,” said Hodgson.

“There’s an element of work to be done with him in that position. He has to concentrate and think very hard about his positional play.

“I thought he played very well there – we were very happy with him. But we thought at that moment in time we had good control of the game and that substituting a player of his type with another player of his type, like Jack Wilshere, would give us the same degree of control with fresh legs. I thought that’s what actually happened.” England, however, were unable to see the game out as Vasili Berezutski’s stoppage-time equaliser cancelled out Eric Dier’s 73rd-minute free-kick and Hodgson was left to rue a catalogue of missed chances.

Raheem Sterling’s poor decision-making in the final third and Harry Kane’s tired performance left them vulnerable, especially given the team’s errant finishing which only enhances the cases of Daniel Sturridge, Jamie Vardy or Marcus Rashford to enter the fray.

Rooney could also yet play further forward but the positive debrief from his first midfield outing in a major tournament, seemingly makes that unlikely at this stage.

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