Wayne Rooney has hit out at Roy Hodgson's tactical failings as he looks ahead to a new season with Manchester United and the national side.
While Sam Allardyce has been keeping quiet on the future of Wayne Rooney from an international perspective, the Manchester United striker has been talking about what went wrong for them at Euro 2016.
In an interview with The Daily Mail, Rooney spoke about the upcoming season with Manchester United as well as what's next for him and his England career, hinting that the embarrassing exit at the hands of Iceland won't be the last time he wears the three lions.
However, he criticised the decision from Roy Hodgson to leave so many players out for the final group game, which saw them finish behind Wales and, as Rooney argues, perhaps stopped them from developing any type of momentum during the tournament.
"If you leave playing your best, beaten by a better team, I accept that," said Rooney. "But we didn't play. We had lost momentum from the Slovakia game and tournament football is about confidence. You get that from winning.
"It was Roy's decision to make those changes against Slovakia and either way, the team he put out should have been able to win. But, right or wrong, I wanted to play and I can't deny that. No, I wouldn't have rested six players, It's more than half the team. It was a gamble and it didn't pay off."
With a flutter of the eyelashes towards his new manager, Rooney also stated that he felt England lacked a directness and a cutting edge against Iceland, which was down to the decision to play passing football instead of doing what they are best at.
Sam Allardyce refuses to give any guarantees that Wayne Rooney will remain as @England captain pic.twitter.com/g2OT4BgmEV
— Rich McCarthy (@VJRichMcCarthy) 25 July 2016
"Every coach has his own thoughts on how [football] should be played, but if it's not working, what's the problem with going long, getting them on the back foot, make it uncomfortable for them?
"There are a lot of different ways to approach it, but pass, pass, pass, and then eventually pass back to your goalkeeper? For a forward player, that gets frustrating," added Rooney.
"You need to get the balance right. You can over-complicate football. You keep moving the ball but if you're not getting near the goal, what's the point?"
Allardyce will take charge of his first game as England manager at the start of September, but was keeping quiet during his first press conference on whether or not Rooney would be captain with the new-look side he plans to put together.
"It's far too early to make any predictions in that area, I'm going to leave that until we meet all the players," said Allardyce.
However, Rooney was clear that he will be ready to turn out for the side whether or not he's named as the leader, saying "I'll carry on until the World Cup in 2018 and then I might have a decision to make, but for the next two years, captain or not captain, I'll turn up and be available to play if I am wanted."
"I've spoken to him," added Rooney. "Not at length about how we're going to play or my role, but he seems very excited about the job and he'll have his own way of doing it."
We may have a clearer picture of that after the first few games in September, but for now it seems that Rooney will be left in the dark for a little while longer.
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