Roy Hodgson insists Wayne Rooney is good enough to play in any position - but wants the Manchester United skipper to continue scoring goals for England.
Rooney was an ever-present in England’s front-line last year and was also voted by the fans as their Player of 2014 after scoring eight goals in 13 games for his country.
But at Old Trafford, he’s often seen operating in a deeper position in the Red Devils’ midfield. However, Hodgson says he has no immediate plans to follow suit.
Rooney went three behind England's goalscoring record against Scotland
He said: “Wayne is the sort of player who could play anywhere.
“You couldn’t surprise me if one day he played right-back and did well. That’s the player he is, he’s a very good footballer.
“We’ll only use him on the pitch where it suits our team best and I don’t know that will be centre-midfield.
“It’s where he plays for Man Utd because they’ve got other players and they feel that’s where he does the best job for them, and I fully respect that. But at the moment I don’t necessarily think that will be his best place for us.
“I don’t have any immediate plans to play him there, but who knows? I will never say never.”
“Wayne is the sort of player who could play anywhere”
Roy Hodgson on Wayne Rooney
Rooney has been one of Hodgson’s most valuable players this campaign. Since the start of the Euro 2016 qualifiers, England have won six games on the spin and Rooney has netted six goals.
Added to that he became England’s ninth centurion when he played his 100th game in the 3-1 win over Slovenia in November. A game in which he inevitably scored and edged closer to the all-time England goalscoring record.
Naturally Hodgson keeps a close eye on his captain’s performances and has been impressed by what he’s seen. And he is hoping he can continue the goalscoring form that has helped put England six points clear at the top of their qualifying group.
“I watched him at West Ham at the weekend and I thought he did an exceptional job, worked his socks off, played well. I’ll look forward to meeting him and seeing how he is,” Hodgson said.
“He’s a goalscorer. One always likes to see goalscorers in a position where they can get into the box and around the box.
“If you’ve got several goalscorers and you can afford to use one of your goalscorers a bit further back, fine, but he’s our top goalscorer, so I hope he continues to score goals for us.”
Rooney reached 100 caps against Slovenia
The England boss believes that players must also have the ability to adapt their games at club level to fit into his plans in the international set-up.
He added: “If you are an England player you do have to accept that you wear two hats. You have got to be prepared to leave one hat at home and put the other hat on.
“If you can’t do that you are never going to be any good for me as an England player, or any other manager for that matter, because we need people who can give us the focus we need to win our matches.
“We can’t demand they wear those hats when they go back to their clubs. We have to quite happily accept when they have done their 10 days with us, they put that hat away and they put a new one on.
“They really do have to have that ability to cross the line and say ‘this is about England and my job now is to do my job for England.'
“I have had no complaints about the players being able to do that. But it is something we constantly work on and constantly preach because it is important.”