Mistakes remain but England friendlies valuable – Sarina Wiegman
There was plenty of change against South Africa, as promised by Wiegman this week, and she said it led to some of the sloppiness on show.
England were caught out on numerous occasions at the back, with not just Williamson making errors.
“We swapped players in different positions so that’s not easy to adapt to and to get the right connections,” said Wiegman.
“Maya le Tissier moved from the right side to the left side and Ella Toone came into a different position [in midfield]. That needs some time.
“I saw some struggles so we have to get through that and try to take the sloppiness out.
“We want to keep playing forward and getting better connected with players in different positions. I ask a lot from them.”
Earlier this week, Wiegman said England needed to deal with criticism as expectations have grown around her side.
As well as claiming the Euro 2022 crown on home soil, they reached the Women’s World Cup final in 2023.
While these two friendly performances did not assure supporters they will be up to scratch when Euro 2025 kicks off next July, there is certainly no need to panic.
England have two more friendlies this year against Olympic gold medallists the United States – managed by former Chelsea boss Emma Hayes – and Euro 2025 hosts Switzerland on 30 November and 3 December respectively.
Wiegman insists she wants to use these matches to “gain information” that will help them at Euro 2025, and has been pleased with what she has gathered so far.
“I think we still have more questions, but that was what we said to each other before this camp. We don’t need to have all the answers now,” said Wiegman.
“We have two more games [this year] and we’re just trying to get as much information as possible. We want to see more players.
“Some players have to be a little more patient than others but we are moving forward and we need these games to try out different things to be better later on.
“We put players in other positions that we wanted to see [against South Africa]. This is the moment to do that.
“Some things I was really happy with, and in other moments, of course, we can improve.”
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