Wayne Rooney has admitted he overruled former England manager Roy Hodgson by replacing Harry Kane on corner duty during Euro 2016.
Hodgson was criticised for a number of his tactical and selection decisions as his side failed in France, with one of the earliest debates centring around his main striker delivering dead balls rather than getting on the end of them.
Kane took all six corners in the opening game against Russia, only for Rooney to take over early in the second group match against Wales.
Hodgson, who had defended his use of Kane, looked surprised and Rooney has revealed it was a call he felt the need to make as captain on the field.
New manager Sam Allardyce retained Rooney as skipper and has backed him to make decisions during matches – something he was certainly happy to do in Lens.
“Roy obviously decided for Harry to take corners. I felt at the time that he was the top goalscorer in the Premier League and he’s a big lad in the box,” said the Manchester United forward.
“It was Roy’s decision, but after the first game I don’t think Harry wanted to take the corners so I went and took them.
“I felt I probably should have taken them anyway. He’s probably better in the air than me and for the last season he had been scoring a lot of goals. So that was it really. I think players have the right to make decisions on the pitch... I don’t think Roy had an issue with that.”
Although England beat Wales, that was the last chance they had for bragging rights.
Chris Coleman’s side went on to top Group B and reach the semi-finals, not to mention celebrate their neighbours’ last-16 exit at the hands of Iceland.
Social media footage of Wales players celebrating the result leaked out and while Rooney did not take offence to that, he suggested others in the squad may have taken it less phlegmatically.
“Because some of the England players are club-mates with some of the Wales players, for the lads who had club team-mates jumping around to celebrate their failure, that was a bit disappointing for some of them,” he said.