WE CAN’T KEEP CRACKING

Allardyce sees England wilt and now sends for a different shrink

ALL week Sam Allardyce could see no sign of an Icelandic hangover. Roy Hodgson had said England’s players would be ‘damaged’ by the manner of their European Championship exit but at St George’s Park last week there was not a hint of an issue.

Then came match day. Then came waking up in Bratislava on Sunday and knowing that in a few hours’ time they would once again be pulling on an England shirt. Then came the prospect of the toughest match of their World Cup qualifying campaign, against a side they could not score against in France.

Martin Glenn, the FA chief executive, spoke of ‘brittleness’ the day after England lost 2-1 to Iceland. Greg Dyke, the outgoing chairman, said the players ‘froze’, that they were ‘scared’. Even after beating Slovakia on Sunday night, Harry Kane and Eric Dier admitted the Iceland game haunts them.

Allardyce sensed that crippling fear returning ahead of the contest in Trnava and he suggested, after seeing Adam Lallana secure victory in the dying seconds, that anxiety had been a key factor in that stuttering first-half display. ‘They were probably a bit nervous,’ said the new England manager. ‘Not in the week building up. But I saw a little nervous tension and it (Iceland) is bound to be in the back of their minds, isn’t it?

‘They had a holiday, a pre-season with their clubs, started the season and then it comes to the first game after Iceland and maybe there was nervous tension.

‘It was certainly too negative in the first 45 minutes. It was possession for possession’s sake, rather than trying to break the opposition down. So that may be a bit of subconscious, players thinking, “I don’t want to be the one who gives that ball away. What if I make that pass and, oh, I don’t know…” But we have to be brave and we have to get balls forward with quality. Get players in good positions and hit them as quickly as we can.’

The subject of Iceland, and the mental scars that defeat inflicted, was something Allardyce (below) quite rightly decided needed to be handled with care.

‘I haven’t asked what their biggest fear is because I didn’t want to talk about fear,’ he said. ‘I wanted to be positive and tell them what the future is. The only thing I mentioned about the past was the need to learn from it and not to feel like that again.’

Allardyce said he will tackle the problem by drawing on the expertise of Lane 4, the elite performance company set up by 1988 Olympic swimming champion Adrian Moorhouse, now working with the players to build greater ‘resilience’.

They are, explained Allardyce, an alternative to Dr Steve Peters, the sports psychiatrist brought in by Hodgson. ‘It is different in terms of Steve Peters,’ he said. ‘They are a company with many facets and we will use them on a consistent basis to help the players build resilience, so they are able to cope with pressure better, even though they already deal with a lot of pressure.

‘On an international stage it’s a different type of pressure and they are very young. As human beings, when we get criticised we hurt.’

This might explain why Allardyce stores such value in the maturity and experience of Wayne Rooney. And why he did not take great issue with Rooney dropping so deep in midfield during the first half. Sensing a degree of anxiety among his team-mates, Rooney did what he so often does and tried to take control of the game in an area he was not strictly supposed to be occupying.

Allardyce recognised that, and it was perhaps what he meant to say when he rather clumsily suggested it was not for him to question the position a player of his captain’s stature takes up.

‘I am using his experience to its maximum as a captain and a player,’ said Allardyce. ‘And I’m encouraging him to play as a captain and play very, very well, which I thought he did. The performance he gave as a captain and international player with great standing was very good.’

Many would still question Rooney’s effectiveness when his positioning left Kane so isolated in attack, a situation that only improved once Dele Alli came on and provided a much more effective foil for the forwards.

But it seems unlikely right now that Allardyce would consider dropping Rooney for Alli. Not when he needs his leadership at this early stage in the Euro 2016 recovery process. More likely for next month’s qualifiers against Malta and Slovenia is the change Allardyce made against Slovakia — Alli for Jordan Henderson.

As Allardyce explained, the intention was for Henderson and Rooney to play ahead of Eric Dier and support Kane. He did, however, concede that, yes, ‘Wayne kept dropping in that hole to pick the ball up’. Even so, one can see what’s coming.

The key, of course, was avoiding another moralesapping result as well as extra pressure on Allardyce only one game into the job. Lallana’s winner, Allardyce recognised, was ‘immense’, adding: ‘It was the most important thing in my England career so far but more for the players than for me.

‘I can only hope we get stronger. There was panic towards the end of the game. I was thinking, “Oh God, come on boys, get the ball in the back of the net”.’

It was quite an introduction to international football for Allardyce, but it has given him something he can build on, even if he says he intends to keep hold of the ‘lucky coin’ he was still clutching in his post-match press conference.

‘I used to be superstitious but when I failed to win promotion three times I thought “forget that”. But I am going to keep it safe. I will keep it in my pocket,’ he said.

He will also conduct a ‘full debrief’ with his staff, and reflect not just on the performance on Sunday but on how to cure this young England squad of their Euro 2016 malaise.

‘I saw nervous tension, Iceland was in the back of their minds’