Phil Neville has already moved on from England Women’s surprise 1-0 defeat by New Zealand in their final warm-up game, his attentions having turned to the “worst part” of his job; telling players whether they are in or out of the starting side for the World Cup opener against Scotland on Sunday.
“The disappointment of not playing is the worst part of my job,” the England manager said. “The five-minute meeting we have where I name the team is the worst part because you see the pride in the XI and the utter disappointment in the non-starters.”
The way Neville plans to tell them has been influenced by his own negative experiences. “We got told an hour and half before the game and just had to get on with it. Some WSL managers do that. But these games are too big,” he said. “You do need to process it, you do need to get used to the formations and to practise it. We’ve brought the naming of the team a day forward to allow them to digest and process the decision.”
Neville knows his every move is being watched, that the players will be searching for clues in every conversation he has and the way he organises training. “We used to call it the starting XI and the bomb squad; you see the bibs, sometimes we pick two teams, totally innocently, and you can see them thinking: ‘Ooh, she’s in my place.’ You read into every little detail of the manager speaking to someone or not. Ultimately we’ve just got to pick the best team.”
Saturday’s friendly against New Zealand at Brighton’s Amex Stadium in front of 20,000 fans was a useful one because on a hot afternoon the players got a taste of what conditions will be like in Nice on Sunday, something they have been trying to prepare for. “I would like to think the English are more adapted to the hot weather than the Scots,” Lucy Bronze joked.
“We have been trying to acclimatise but the weather has been awful,” Lucy Staniforth added. “It was pretty hot, so it’s given us a test ahead of the tournament.
“We have been trying to get as much heat exposure as we can. We have been wearing thick thermal tops in training and layering up, and we have been in the sauna every day.
“I’ve managed about 10-15 minutes. Some of the girls have hit really high numbers. I have no idea how they have done that. Karen Carney, is one. I’m one who’s going: ‘Please get me out of here.’”
