James Maddison insists England’s players go into the World Cup full of belief they can win it.
Maddison says they are ready to take “one more” step and lift the trophy after Gareth Southgate took them so close in the last two major tournaments. Leicester midfielder Maddison claimed England would have no chance unless they truly believed they could go all the way - and the squad has total faith.
Maddison said: “It has almost been like a journey for England. The manager, Gareth, has been in the job a long time now and done a brilliant job and we are almost on that trajectory from 2018 to the Euros to then now.
“If it stays like that, it will be brilliant for us because that will mean it goes up one more. We know it’s difficult, we know there are a lot of good nations but I think you have to go into a tournament like this with the belief you can win it because if you don’t believe that, you can’t win it.
“You need to believe amongst the group that you are good enough to win the tournament. If you have any sort of doubt, then you probably will come across a hiccup along the way. I think our belief is fully there, we are invested. We all want to do well for the manager, for each other, for the country and for the nation. Hopefully we can go that one step further.”
England reached the semi-finals in Russia in 2018 and lost the Euros final on penalties last year but have had a dip in form this year and are without a win in their last six games. But Maddison insists there is “good energy” in the group and added: “I think we’ve all seen England at major tournaments in recent years and they’ve been brilliant.
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“At the Euros, you could see there was a feel about the Euros and in Russia that the togetherness was all there for everyone to see, publicly, in-house. And coming back into the squad and meeting up and the first few days, it’s been the same sort of thing. You can feel it.”
Maddison also has no doubt that he and his teammates will be able to deal with the boiling temperatures in the Qatari capital of Doha. England’s first game against Iran kicks off at 4pm local time next Monday and the players trained at similar time on Wednesday to make sure they are well prepared.
Even though it is cooling down at this time of year, the temperatures are unseasonably warm and have been over 30 degrees each day, but it does get colder later in the day. However, Maddison says it will be no problem - and is the same for all of the teams hoping to win the trophy.
Maddison said: “I think we all, the majority of the squad, have played in temperatures that are higher. It’s got that pre-season feel, when you play a team from abroad, and you play in the hot time in the summer, it’s got that feel.
“We’ve all done it, we’re all experienced, we’ve all played games abroad and in different countries. It is going to be warm, just like in day-to-day stuff. It’s the same for everyone, everyone’s out here, but there’s air conditioning.
“We had a joke about the rooms here but the air con is absolutely fine. There’s air conditioning around everywhere, it’s nice to train in a bit of heat actually to be honest, instead of the cold rain in England. Again, looking at the positives.”
