Sam Allardyce Faces 3 Huge Decisions Ahead of Slovakia vs. England
The first international break of the season is always a painful one—it comes at an incredibly awkward juncture and, many feel, serves to stomp out the flow of recently returned league football—but this break will be particularly worrisome for England fans.
Like it or not, the Sam Allardyce reign kicks in fully on Saturday at 5 p.m. BST, as his Three Lions side travel to Trnava to play Slovakia in the first 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier of the campaign. His was a contentious appointment to say the least, with some supporters pledging to bury their heads in the sand while he is in charge, but the natural intrigue over what the former Sunderland boss might do in his maiden game will overcome most.
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And he must make some big decisions.
The headline one is obvious: What will he do with Wayne Rooney? While many fans would love to see him dropped, the fact is the Manchester United forward has retained the national captaincy under Allardyce and will be playing.
While Premier League viewers will rightly point out that his overall play in Manchester United’s first three games has been familiarly sluggish, it’s impossible to deny that he has also delivered three match-defining moments, too. Permeating the slow, ponderous play have been three critical actions: a killer goal against AFC Bournemouth; a beautiful cross for Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s opener against Southampton; and an ingenious piece of play to lay the winner for Marcus Rashford against Hull City on a plate.
That will be enough for Allardyce to justify his selection of Rooney in the starting XI; that sort of production—be it swathed in average overall play or not—is difficult to ignore, and it may serve as a theme for how the manager selects players moving forward. Michail Antonio, the only uncapped player called up for the game against Slovakia, provides the same sort of productive quality that Rooney has.
"He’s a goalscorer from wide positions so that’s the thinking behind [it], based on his performances over the last season and the start of this season," Allardyce told FA TV. He praised a number of Antonio’s attributes while talking about the selection, but this is the most important part.
England’s goalscoring output at the fresh wound that is Euro 2016 was exceptionally disappointing. The football played was fantastic in parts, no doubt, but just four goals in four games (against Russia, Wales, Slovakia and Iceland) was indicative of a set of players who lacked goalscoring instincts.
Indeed, looking over that squad—and in particular the midfield—there were few goals in it. Adam Lallana presses and turns sweetly on the ball but has lacked production since leaving Southampton; Ross Barkley sat unused on the bench, with murmurs he turned up at camp overweight dogging the story of his selection; a Raheem Sterling who lacks confidence will never carry the load; and Rooney’s glacial speed when doing anything was a natural obstacle to quick, incisive football.
Antonio is a more rudimentary but undoubtedly more effective midfield option for Allardyce to use. If his intent was to add goalscorers to his team, then calling up Antonio—who has 10 in his last 25 starts for West Ham United in an assortment of positions that include right- and right-wing-back, per WhoScored.com—is a surefire way to achieve it.
He is eerily excellent at converting back-post headers and bulldozing his way past markers, and he’s equally good at delivering his own crosses for others to utilise. Whereas Roy Hodgson prioritised on-the-deck play, with the wingers dipping inside and the full-backs providing width and low crosses, Allardyce might well return England to an aerial game—at least in parts—and try to utilise the nation’s natural size advantage against many.
Another question for Allardyce to answer is how he sees Joe Hart following the goalkeeper's tumultuous summer. A late loan move to Torino confirmed not only that Pep Guardiola wanted to jettison him from the club but also that few—if any—of Europe’s elite were interested in taking him for a season. Sevilla and Everton took a look, as reported by Nick Miller of the Guardian, but no better team was ever in the running.
Fraser Forster’s arm injury—forcing his Southampton deputy Alex McCarthy to replace him in the England squad, per the Standard—has removed any temptation Big Sam may have had to give Forster a go to begin qualifying, and a straight choice between Hart and Tom Heaton is a simple one to make.
The weaknesses Pep sees in Hart’s game—the lack of ball-playing ability and the difficulty he has with accurate kicks from the back—are unlikely to be an issue for Allardyce. While suggestions England will return to route-one football with Andy Carroll up top (when he’s fit) are likely overblown, there will be no onus on the goalkeeper to become a playmaker either.
In stark contrast to England’s many questions, Slovakia have no new ones. Jan Kozak was in charge for the game these two nations played out in Euro 2016 Group B, and he remains in charge; the defensive line is the same; the same midfield threats apply; and there is, understandably, no new answer in the striking department.
England’s success or failure in this game directly relates to Marek Hamsik and whether or not he can be prevented from pulling the strings. His long-range passing and long-range shooting are Slovakia’s two biggest weapons, and although they lack a killer instinct up front, they have the speed to make Hamsik’s passing a serious threat over the top.
Closing Hamsik down is key, but in the process, it’s important not to ignore Juraj Kucka, who has emerged as a player who can legitimately take the load off his colleague, and his rumbustious style complements the setup quite well.
Martin Skrtel and Jan Durica, who were extremely solid during Euro 2016 (even if the former should have given away multiple penalties), are tough to beat when they sit in the box and repel everything. That brings us back to the calling up of Antonio—a productive, battering ram of a winger with goalscoring instincts—and it makes even more sense. Where Lallana may fail to pick the lock against a deep-set line, Antonio can take a simpler, more brutal approach.
At the other end, John Stones’ imperious start to life at Manchester City could be the key to quelling Slovakia’s counter-attack. Playing high up, one-on-one with space in behind in Guardiola’s system, he’s made no mistakes and has frequently put a stop to attacks on the halfway line. He could well be the antidote to Ondrej Duda’s good movement and Robert Mak’s speed.
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