England boss Sarina Wiegman is not concerned by criticism as the Lionesses aim to bounce back from their friendly defeat to Germany with victory over South Africa on Tuesday.
Wiegman’s side were 3-0 down inside half an hour against their Euro 2022 final opponents at Wembley on Friday but rallied before eventually losing 4-3.
Preparations are underway for South Africa’s visit to the Coventry Building Society Arena as Wiegman is given another chance to experiment.
Shortlisted for the Women’s Coach of the Year award 🏆
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) October 28, 2024
Good luck this evening, Sarina! ❤️#ballondor pic.twitter.com/PcUmlKHOkB
Wiegman insists the outside noise does not bother her in friendlies.
She told a press conference: “For me it doesn’t matter how fair the criticism is, what we look at is what we wanted to do as a team and how we wanted to execute our plan.
“We wanted to high press and didn’t get that right, and against a top-level team like Germany we were exposed and that’s what happens – some things went well and some things didn’t.
“You don’t want to be 3-0 down but how we fought back and got better. This is one step, we got lots of information and tomorrow we go again – we go out there to win.
We always get the bigger picture, this is a friendly game
“There is criticism from outside but we know exactly what we’re working on and where want to go to, from the outside it’s a bit too much result related, so what would it have been if it was 4-4? We always get the bigger picture, this is a friendly game.”
Georgia Stanway netted twice for England in the first half on Friday and went on to play the full 90 minutes.
The 25-year-old knows expectation has risen since the Lionesses’ European Championships win two years ago and knows they need to continue to evolve.
Looking to finish the camp on a high 🙌 pic.twitter.com/EWsErGBIrG
— Lionesses (@Lionesses) October 28, 2024
She said: “When expectation is continuous, we’re not able to live up to it, it’s inevitable at some point it will plateau and I feel like we’ve been with Sarina for three years and it will get to a point where we can’t continuously win.
“Teams will figure us out and are getting better, they are pushing and that’s where we need to work together to reinvent ourselves, change a little bit of tactics to get one up on the opposition.
“As much as teams are evolving, we also have to continue to evolve to get that one up.”
It’s been 14 years since England and South Africa last met as the Lionesses secured a 1-0 win in February 2010 in the Cyprus Cup tournament.
A completely new opponent will provide a different challenge for Wiegman’s side and she admitted there will be changes.
She added: “We are expecting a very quick team, physical team, very unpredictable and a lot of speed.
“We want different styles against us. Not having a lot of opportunities to play friendlies, I think this is a great opportunity to play South Africa, it’ll be another learning moment for us, and how we can approach that. We experienced that in the World Cup too.
“You will see different faces tomorrow. You will see changes, that’s what we said, we want to try out things, we want the players to see connections and so many games coming after the camp.”
