Slovakia vs England: Sam Allardyce admits he is under 'massive pressure' to get result

New manager knows his side cannot afford to start World Cup qualifying campaign with a loss

Sam Allardyce (right) talks tactics with his coaches during England training (Getty)

Sam Allardyce has admitted he is "massively" under-pressure to secure a positive start to his reign as England manager against Slovakia on Sunday, but warned that the Group F opponents will pose a wholly different challenge to the defensive unit which claimed a 0-0 Euro 2016 draw in St Etienne two months ago.

Having rejected the opportunity to begin his spell in charge with a Wembley friendly, Allardyce goes into the match in Trnava knowing there will be little room for error or experimentation. But with Slovakia claiming a 2-1 home win against Spain during the Euro 2016 qualification campaign – that victory was countered by a 1-0 defeat on home turf to Belarus – Allardyce claims that Sunday’s opponents possess the quality to upset England unless his players are prepared for the home side to make a fast start.

“All the analysis lads have clipped all Slovakia’s games at home in the qualifiers and the fact is they seem to start pretty quickly and score the goals pretty early,” Allardyce said.

“In the qualifiers, it seems they had a fantastic start and drifted away towards the end to not quite get as good a result as they did in the beginning, but they were on the front foot at the beginning.”

Allardyce, who will start with Joe Hart in goal following Fraser Forster’s withdrawal due to an arm injury, believes Slovakia’s defensive approach against England in France was a change from their usual tactic of playing an attacking game.

“I didn’t watch them in the Euros because I think different tactics will be used by Slovakia when they are playing at home,” he said. “They only needed a point in the Euros, so they sat back and were very defensively minded and really chose not to attack at all because they only needed a point. I think the onus will now be on them to come and attack us and win their home game. It will be very important for them and their manager and that might hopefully leave our creative players a little bit more space to break them down where they failed in the Euros.”

But with England still overcoming the anguish and humiliation of losing to Iceland at Euro 2026, Allardyce accepts he is under pressure to mastermind an impressive performance.

“Massively, yes,” he said. “And there is a huge need to at the very least come back with a result.”