Stanway urges England to go back to their roots for make-or-break match

The Guardian

07-07-2025

Georgia Stanway wants the Lionesses to go back to their roots and be 'proper England' as they prepare to face the Netherlands at Euro 2025 after their opening-game defeat against France.
'We know as a team that we underperformed. We know as individuals that we underperformed,' Stanway said. 'I didn't want to do the press conference today because I'm fed up of talking now. It's time that we focus on putting things right on the grass.
'We're all just dying for the game to come round as fast as possible because we want to make sure that we're stepping on that pitch knowing what we've experienced but also wanting to make a change.
'We've spoken about wanting to be 'proper England'; we want to go back to what we're good at, we want to go back to a traditional style of football in terms of tough tackles, getting back to our roots and remembering why we're here, remembering that we're playing for the little girl that wanted to be here.'
After the 2-1 defeat on Saturday, the Lionesses came together. 'We had good conversations, good meetings, we watched clips,' Stanway said. 'The day after the game, as soon as you get on that grass, you kind of forget about everything that's happened. I had a message from somebody that I knew and it was like: 'It's just like a bad night out that you want to forget it as much as possible. Move on to the next one.' So yeah, that's exactly what we're going to do.'
England will be out of the tournament if they lose against the Netherlands in Zurich on Wednesday and France are not beaten by Wales. The pressure is on the holders but Lucy Bronze, who is competing at her seventh major tournament, helped to put things in perspective, recounting to her teammates how England lost their opening game of the World Cup in 2015, against France, before going on to reach the semi-finals.
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'It was a together moment,' Stanway said. 'It was 2-1 [and] we could have got a draw. We just need to perform and we want the fans to stay with us, they know that we're capable. True fans stick with us to the end.'
Stanway was disappointed with her own performance against France, with England's midfield overrun and outmuscled. 'For some reason, I couldn't do the things that I wanted to be able to do in possession,' the Bayern Munich midfielder said.
'That's why I just knew that I had to run around and I had to put some tackles in, that was my way of showing if I can't do something on the ball then I'll work my socks off to make sure that I can do it off the ball.'
Despite not having played much football after knee surgery earlier this year, Stanway is able to take positives from her current circumstance. 'You're able to work on things in the gym that you haven't had time to work on before, you're able to get fitter, faster, stronger, and for me that is the case,' she said.
'I've got test results now that I've not seen in the last two years and I do think that is because of the time that I got to do the rehab sessions.'
Stanway believes the key to success against the Netherlands will be good communication. 'On the pitch if you need something and you're not getting it, or if you want something and you're not getting it, it can feel like a lonely place, and we don't ever want to experience that as a team. We want to make sure we've got the eye contact and are communicating in the good and the bad moments, because that's when we get the best out of each other.'