Adam Lallana and Southampton want you and Roy Hodgson to know that they are for real.
Lallana scored a superb solo goal in Southampton’s 4-1 victory over Hull City in the Premier League on Saturday — perhaps the best goal of this weekend’s action in England’s top flight.
In the 37th minute, the Southampton midfielder started dribbling 35 yards from the Hull goal, weaved through three defenders and hit a low, curling shot past goalkeeper Steven Harper to give his team a 3-0 lead.
The goal was Lallana’s third of the season — in which Southampton has climbed to the upper echelon of the Premier League and the 25-year-old earned call-ups (along with and teammates Jay Rodriguez and Rickie Lambert) to England’s national team in these crucial months leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
Southampton teammate Morgan Schneiderlin praised Lallana after Saturday’s game. He told Sky Sports that Lallana deserves international recognition.
“I’ve had the chance to walk with him for six years, growing as a player, he’s just fantastic, so much ability,” he said of Lallana. “I think he’s one of the best talents in England and he deserved that call-up, today he showed that he deserved that.”
Lallana is part of the core group of previously unheralded players who have taken Southampton from the depths of League One (English soccer’s third division) to its current position — third in the Premier League after 11 games. He helped Southampton achieve successive promotions (in 2010-11 and 2011-12) and escape relegation upon its return to the top flight last season before enjoying this dream start to the current campaign.
Like the others, Lallana has advanced his international career’s prospects with his fine club form. He represented his country at the U-18, U-19 and U-21 levels between 2006-08 but hasn’t played for the Three Lions in the last five years. England manager Hodgson called Lallana up to England’s squad in September, but he didn’t appear in the World Cup qualifying game against Ukraine.
Hodgson attended Southampton’s game against Hull. Lallana undoubtedly impressed Hodgson on Saturday, and there’s a good chance he will play in the upcoming exhibitions against Chile and Germany. There’s an even better chance that the Chilean and German defenses will offer Lallana more resistance than Hull’s, but it’s a challenge he’ll readily accept.
See Lallana’s solo goal below.
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