England manager Wiegman faces difficult second album as Lionesses head off to Australia for World Cup

Faced with the tricky combination of injury-induced absences, a much-changed squad since Euros success, and the weight of expectation, the England boss finds herself with a selection headache ahead of the World Cup. Players must be ready to seize their opportunity, writes Jessy Parker Humphreys.

Heading back into the studio to follow up on your initial success is a tricky prospect for any wannabe superstar. Catapulted into the limelight with the pressure to justify the hype, England head to Australia this week attempting to live up to being European Champions. This is unknown territory for the Lionesses — until last summer they had never won an international trophy — although it is not, of course, for their manager.

Sarina Wiegman lifted the trophy with the Netherlands in 2017 before leading them to a World Cup final in 2019. It was not like the Netherlands sailed through the tournament that summer, but the Dutch manager was able to rely predominantly on the team with which she had won the Euros. That will not be the case for England in Australia.

What this means for England is that players will not only have to contend with their own star having risen as a result of the 2022 summer success, but also adjust to changing roles within the team. Players like Keira Walsh and Georgia Stanway are no longer youngsters breaking into the squad but are two of only seven players who were part of the group who reached the semi-finals in France 2019. Lucy Bronze is the only player in the squad to have started all the games there.

That kind of turnover across four years is perhaps not surprising, particularly given a number of key members of England’s squad in 2019 were over 30; but the injury-related shift from a tournament that took place only a year earlier has been more difficult to predict. Wiegman has had to adjust her squad on the fly as various starters have dropped out throughout the year, and it was clear in England’s final public warm-up game against Portugal that relationships within the squad are still being built.

But Wiegman went into the Euros with a number of elements still up in the air. The switch of Leah Williamson from midfield to centre-back only happened right in the lead up to the tournament — it will be interesting to see if the decision to play Alex Greenwood at left-back with Jess Carter at centre-back against Portugal is because of a similar change of heart. Equally, there was still a question concerning Fran Kirby’s fitness last year, but she was able to go on and play all seven games despite having not played for Chelsea since February.

Clearly, there are similar decisions for Wiegman still to make on this squad, with question marks hanging over three spots in the starting XI. Alessia Russo and Rachel Daly are duking it out to be the starting striker, whilst Lauren James could usurp either Ella Toone as a number 10 or Chloe Kelly on the wing. The Chelsea star was one of the standout players against Portugal, with her ability on the ball clearly offering England a different profile than they had at the Euros.

Daly, meanwhile, had the most prolific season of all the English strikers, but has lacked minutes up top for England, having been used at left back during the Euros. Russo felt by far the more creative player against Portugal but a handful of misses in that match raised questions about her clinical edge. It is clear that there is no perfect answer for Wiegman when it comes to picking a starting XI and she may be forced to be more flexible during the World Cup than she was during the Euros.

It is easy to forget that for England, this is a brand new experience; how well they do might depend as much on how ready players are to take the step up and become leaders in the team. Last summer we saw lead vocalist Williamson take on such a role with aplomb, despite having only played seven minutes for England at the previous World Cup. In the captain’s absence, other players will have to fill that void in tough moments on the pitch.

There is also a huge opportunity for players who did not play big roles during the Euros to come in, be on song and make some of their own history. It is rare for a tournament-winning team to have so many positions up for grabs, and England’s success might come down to how many players are willing to take their chance. Regardless of how well England do at this tournament, we will know far more about what the players are made of. They say hard times create strong men; this World Cup, we will find out whether it creates strong women.

Follow Jessy on Twitter @jessyjph

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