England defeated Slovakia 1-0 with Adam Lallana scoring his first international goal.
England manager Sam Allardyce after the press conference
Former players Terry Butcher and Chris Waddle blasted England for a poor performance despite Sam Allardyce picking up his first win with a late 1-0 victory over Slovakia, the BBC report.
The match resembled the rather forgettable 0-0 encounter the duo played out at the European Championships and for long spells it looked like a similar scoreline was on the cards.
The Three Lions struggled to break the hosts down even after Martin Skrtel received a red card for Slovakia, yet in injury time Adam Lallana popped up to score his first international goal in 27 caps and hand Sam Allardyce a debut win as England boss.
The three points are most welcome considering this was dubbed the toughest game of the group, yet former players Butcher and Waddle felt the performance again fell a long way short of expectations.
“Tactically England were poor and their basics were poor. But they won it through perseverance alone,” Butcher told the BBC.
“But there’s a lot of work for Sam Allardyce to do and would England have won the game had Martin Skrtel not got himself sent off? Does that paper over the cracks? No. There’s not enough paper.”
Waddle was even more blunt, telling BBC Radio Five Live: “It wasn’t impressive from England. No imagination, no creativity, same old.”
England completely dominated proceedings against Slovakia, racking up a total of 20 efforts on goal while goalkeeper Joe Hart barely broke sweat such was the lack of pressure at the other end.
Having said that, the build-up play at times was desperately slow and there was a real lack of both urgency and creativity in the final third for much of the encounter.
Skrtel’s red card certainly allowed England to push further men forward and pin the hosts back, but against better sides Sam Allardyce’s side must find a cutting edge in order to turn possession into goals.
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