Online debate around Lionesses squad has been fierce but game against Brazil is about flexibility, not finality
T
he online discourse when Sarina Wiegman named her England squad for the October international window was emphatic: Maya Le Tissier must play at centre-back; Aggie Beever-Jones must start; Taylor Hinds’s allegiance switch is odd; this player isn’t good enough … it is scandalous that that player hasn’t been included.
It’s good that people care, that fans are engaged in the details, drilling down into what England do, and are discussing how they take the next step on the way towards the 2027 World Cup. Opinion is valuable. Sometimes, though, the discussion verges on hysteria, can feel misplaced and, as England head into the first of four friendlies in their “Homecoming Series”, it all feels a bit over the top.
Win, lose, draw, play Beever-Jones at left-back, stick Le Tissier on as a centre-forward, none of it really matters. The point is: now is the time to experiment, to try things, to risk failure. As Wiegman put it before’s England’s game against Brazil at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday: “You have to find opportunities to try things out. You don’t get that many opportunities to do that any more in international windows. Now we have these friendlies and yes, of course, we want to win every single game, but it is also an opportunity to try out things and to see different players and combinations. That’s what we’re going to try to do, because it might be the last period we can do that in.”
