What do England need to improve?
The Lionesses now have just over a year until Euro 2025. What needs to change?
There has been much discussion over the past few months about England’s development as a squad. The failure to qualify for the Nation’s League semi-finals and thus the Olympics prompted the general conclusion that the Lionesses have grown stagnant and tired. The first signs of that were on show at the World Cup where despite England reaching the final, it is fair to say the performances were not as sparkling as they had been 12 months earlier at the Euros.
England looked much better in their two friendly matches since missing out on the Olympics. They comfortably beat Austria 7-2 followed by Italy 5-1. To score 12 goals against two nations in the world top 20 is not bad going. Defensively there were still wobbles in both games - from set pieces against Austria and in transition against Litaly - but the Lionesses look far less goal shy.
So how much do England actually need to change?
They have not yet qualified for the European Championship in Switzerland but with the Nations League format, they stand a very strong chance. England will be seeded second in a League A group whereby the top two teams will automatically qualify for Euro 2025. There are certainly some potential banana-skins in the third seed pot, including Sweden and Norway, but even if England were to finish third, they would have a play-off match against a League C team. Top-seeded sides in that League include Slovenia, Greece, Belarus, Romania and Albania. Given all this, we can fairly safely look ahead to that tournament I think.
For all the interest in England developing, the starting XI for Euro 2025 feels quite predictable.
Providing there are no significant injuries, I suspect we will see this:
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