Lallana aims to ride wave of confidence
THINGS could not be going much better for Adam Lallana right now.
He is one of the “Fab Four” in the Liverpool attack who have spearheaded the Reds’ rise to the top of the Premier League alongside Sadio Mane and the Brazilian duo Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino.
Now Lallana is also becoming an increasingly pivotal figure for England.
After failing to score in his first 26 internationals, it’s now two in two as his header against Scotland on Friday followed on from his winner in Slovakia in September.
And he is happy to ride this wave for as long as possible under Jurgen Klopp at Anfield and with Gareth Southgate for the national team.
“When you have confidence, it’s important you take advantage of it,” he says. “It’s not something you can switch on and off.
“It’s something that gradually comes and I feel like I’m at the top of the game at the minute.
“It’s nice to be able to bring that to the international stage.
“I’m not too sure if I have ever played as well as this but I can still improve a lot more. I feel like I’m improving every day at Liverpool.
“Hopefully I can keep doing well and performing well for England, too.
“Someone said to me recently ‘You’re finally a Liverpool player.’ I don’t agree with that at all.
“Last season, we were playing well. We got to two cup finals at Liverpool. I just feel that things fall into place and it’s nice to get a good run of games.
“I’m not so worried about my own form. It’s more about how we are doing as a team domestically and internationally.
“Liverpool are top of the league and with England, we’re unbeaten and top of the group.
“The objective is the World Cup in Russia and we’re well on the way.”
Lallana will hope to feature again on Tuesday when England take on Spain in a friendly.
He has bad memories from a 2-0 defeat in Alicante 12 months ago when the sides last met.
But facing the Spanish will be more of a barometer of England’s current state than the 3-0 triumph over the Scots as they look to regroup after the nightmare at the Euros.
“It will be a very different game and a massive test,” says Lallana. “We had a very difficult game against Spain and they gave us the run around at times.
“So, hopefully, the boss will have a way for us to set up and play well against them.
“The summer was a massive knock for our confidence to go out like that to Iceland. Of course it was going to take time to recover.
“The change of managers has not helped as well. But hopefully we can now gain some momentum under Gareth.”