England caretaker manager Gareth Southgate has confirmed his decision to leave out Wayne Rooney from the starting XI in Slovenia is no reflection on his performance at the weekend.
Many felt Rooney failed to impress in the underwhelming 2-0 win over Malta at Wembley, and Southgate confirmed in a pre-match press conference that the Manchester United player will start from the bench in Ljubljana.
Jordan Henderson will captain the team for that game, though Rooney remains England’s official captain.
“It’s very straight forward. We’ve looked at the way Slovenia play, which we did midway last week. And we profiled the kind of midfield we wanted to play,” Southgate said in a press conference ahead of the World Cup qualifier.
“It is in no reflection to Rooney’s performance at the weekend, in fact we were happy with the way he played. It was not an easy decision to make but we felt it was the right one.”
WATCH: Gareth Southgate says Wayne Rooney remains captain & he has been impressed with him: https://t.co/Qe4vQa74dw https://t.co/QK06hzZRrB
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) October 10, 2016
England are the only country in Group F with a 100% qualifying record after two games, but Slovenia can take top spot with a win on Tuesday.
Rooney announced ahead of the current qualifying campaign that he will end his international career after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but Southgate reiterated that he has no plans to push his captain away from the international set-up.
This is despite his performance on Wembley on Saturday, when he was nutmegged by a Maltese opponent and seemingly subjected to booing from sections of the crowd.
“Sometimes that’s part of the game but I’ve nothing really to say on it – I wasn’t aware while on the pitch,” Rooney said today when asked about the booing.
When asked about the decision to make Henderson captain for the upcoming qualifier, Southgate cited the former Sunderland man’s work taking over from Steven Gerrard as Liverpool’s skipped.
“In this group he has a voice, an opinion, and ideas of what we need to work on, and good tactical awareness,” Southate said.
“He’s used to the responsibility of captaining a big football club.”
Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live:
