England picked up a confident 4-0 win over Hungary but most of the players who played in that match are likely to be rested this weekend.
The Three Lions take on Andorra in their second game of the break and Gareth Southgate has already hinted that he is going to make wholesale changes to his starting line up.
England are sitting at the top of the group so there’s no need for the manager to take any sort of risks, especially with a key game vs Poland coming up.
Southgate, while talking to the press, has urged his squad players to take the chance with both hands meaning a lot of the benchwarmers are expected to come into the side on Sunday.
“I think every time we train, every time we work together, there’s a level of performance that’s expected amongst us as a group of staff and players, really,” the manager said on Saturday.
“We’ve seen that since we got together again on Monday.
“You’ve got to set the standards and there’s got to be a level of focus and humility. I mentioned before the game in Hungary that they’re important qualities because it means then that the talent we have comes to the fore.
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“So if we’re working as hard as we should be, if we’re mentally in the right place, then our talent can come to the fore and I think we’ve shown that over a consistent period of time.
“We’re 14 or 15 matches without defeat and it means that as a group you gain confidence from various situations we’ve had to face in terms of being behind in games or being ahead in games, tight games that you have to win late.
“Everybody that comes in knows their job, everybody knows the way that we play and that’s what we want every time we select a team and they take the pitch.
“We’ve got great trust in all of the squad so whenever we make changes to the team we always still get a good level of performance and really good level of focus.”
Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker are running the risk of suspension so they will remain on the bench on Sunday. This means Leeds United man Patrick Bamford will get his first start for England.
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Man United’s Jesse Lingard is also expected to start in midfield along with Jordan Henderson as both Rice and Kalvin Phillips are rested.
Jadon Sancho has been ruled out with a knock so Bukayo Saka will come into the side and we will either see Alexander-Arnold or Reece James replace Kyle Walker at right-back.
Conor Coady and Tyrone Mings are also expected to come into the starting line up as Southgate will want to preserve his first-choice central defenders for the Poland game in midweek.
The English side have a great record in World Cup games, winning are 20 of their last 22 matches and they are overwhelming favourites to pick up a win on Sunday as well. The only issue for Gareth Southgate will be to properly man-manage his players so they do not pick up any injuries before the Poland match.
