Sarina Wiegman calls for England to show ruthless side ahead of Germany clash

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Sarina Wiegman has called on England to show their ruthless side in front of goal ahead of the Lionesses‘ final Arnold Clark Cup match against Germany on Wednesday.

England have turned in two promising performances against Canada and Spain in their opening two fixtures of the tournament – the first time the Lionesses have come up against world class opposition during Wiegman’s tenure – but have found the net just once.

England created opportunities against Spain on Sunday, with Lauren Hemp clattering the post and Ellen White coming close on a couple of occasions, but they were ultimately held to a goalless draw. Millie Bright’s thunderous volley against Canada remains the only time the Lionesses have found the net at the Arnold Clark Cup thus far.

„We just want to take the next step again tomorrow. We would really like to score a goal and take that next step, and it has to do with decision making, with the final connection between players, and just being ruthless too,“ Wiegman said ahead of the clash with Germany.

„It doesn’t really matter who scores the goals as long as we score a goal. We want to do better in our final third and that’s about decision making, about connection, about scanning how the situation is and then being ruthless.

„Of course we want to do a little better because we created lots of chances (against Spain and Canada) and that’s very well done because I think we played really well and created those chances, and now we want to score them too and that’s just the final touch but the hardest thing in football and that’s in the final third.“

Wiegman has used the first two matches of the Arnold Clark Cup to experiment with team selection. Leah Williamson and Keira Walsh played in midfield together for the first time at senior international level against Canada, while goalkeeper Hannah Hampton made her debut against Spain and Georgia Stanway was deployed in a deep-lying midfield role.

The England boss hinted at more positional experimentation against Germany.

„We have some information on how we want to play and how we want to develop our style of play and how players fit in there, and that’s what we’re going to try again tomorrow,“ Wiegman added.

„Continue what we’re doing and make that even better against another opponent again and see some slight changes in positions.“