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England Squad Report: The skipper speaks, Gerrard tells team to leave it all on the pitch

Richard Heathcote / Getty

Like Al Pacino with a Scouse accent, Steven Gerrard has delivered his Any Given Sunday speech. The England captain has told his teammates that they will “need to leave everything on the pitch” against Uruguay today.

Indeed, England needs a result to stand any chance of making the World Cup last 16. Defeat would send the Three Lions crashing out of the tournament at the earliest stage in 56 years (although they didn’t qualify in 1974, 1978 and 1994).

Gerrard and Frank Lampard held a team meeting at the England hotel in Rio de Janeiro to echo this sentiment. The Liverpool man then revealed he would be spending the eve of the game completing his preparation and research on his iPad. Nobody can accuse Gerrard of taking his role lightly.

Hodgson is expected to stick with the attacking philosophy, and the same lineup he used for the defeat to Italy, although he is likely to rein in Raheem Sterling somewhat, using him in a more familiar wide position.

Against Uruguay, England will face a different test to the one Italy posed, with Oscar Tabarez creating a naturally counter-attacking team. Subsequently, the game is likely to be relatively open and free-flowing, despite what is at stake.

As Gerrard concluded Wednesday, “We saw the other night that even a top team like Italy got tested by the quality of our attacking play, so we’re not going to put any of our weapons down.”

Fixtures/Results

Group D — June 14 — England 1 - Italy 2

Group D — June 19 — Uruguay vs. England

Group D — June 24 — Costa Rica vs. England

Squad News/Rumors/Injury Report

MF Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — Out of the Uruguay game and could be out of the World Cup (knee).

MF Jack Wilshere — Unlikely to start (Match fitness).

FW Danny Welbeck — Still training with heavy strapping (Hamstring strain).

FW Wayne Rooney is expected to play in a more central position against Uruguay.

Team Leaders

Goals: Daniel Sturridge — 1

Assists: Wayne Rooney — 1

Quick Notes

Roy Hodgson says he will “use any weapon we’ve got” to ensure England secure victory over Uruguay. Not sure NATO will be cool with that.

After the humidity of the Amazon rainforest England will play in temperatures as low as 14C in Sao Paulo. It will be warmer in London.

England’s players been running drills on how to stop Luis Suarez. This was one of them.

It’s not quite up to the standard of a USMNT hype video, but not a bad effort by England. 

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