Talking Football With...Lianne Sanderson: England Need To Be a Lot Better Against Norway

In the next edition of our interview series with the former England forward Lianne Sanderson, we look back at England’s 1-0 win over Austria in midweek as well as preview next Monday’s crucial game with Norway.

Lianne sat down to chat about a range of topics including that Norway match on Monday, who she thinks will win the tournament, and whether the pressure of playing at Old Trafford affected the match on Wednesday night.

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Thank you so much Lianne for taking the time to be with us today. How are you doing?

I feel like I played in the game (the other night), because after you play in the game you have all this adrenaline during the game and then you kind of hit a bit of a wall afterwards. So it was a really really fantastic occasion and great for the women’s game and the attendance was brilliant. The fans were there from so early on with a fanfest.

My only disappointment is that there is only one game during the tournament at Old Trafford. I don’t think they anticipated it being as big as it is when the tickets went on sale.

Looking at the England-Austria result, where do you think England excelled and where do you think they need to improve?

I was a bit surprised with the team selection.

I felt like Alex Greenwood was definitely gonna play. It wasn’t going to be the matter of, if she would play, be a matter of where. Whether that be left-back or centre-back, so I was sure she felt really disappointed in that situation.

I like Rachel Daly, I like her as a person and I like her as a player. But, I feel like when you are playing a right-footed player on the left side. Almost in the second half, she started to play the ball to Millie Bright for her to pick the ball out to Lauren Hemp. That technique had been out to pick the ball on the left foot or like what Alex Greenwood would usually do. She would bend it around the back line.

That was something I don’t think we will be able to get away with in the tournament, playing the right-footed player at left-back. I really don’t see the point in it. That would be my only criticism. I thought Georgia Stanway had the best game I’ve ever seen her have in an England shirt.

I gave her the player of the match during the game and I’m glad they gave her officially at the stadium as well. Sometimes football is about opinions. Offensively she was brilliant and she was doing slide tackles, she was getting stuck in, playing through balls and I’m glad that it didn’t go unnoticed along with Keira Walsh. Again absolutely brilliant. The quarterback of the English team.

But all the England team really, absolutely fantastic performance. A couple of individuals played well. I think collectively as a team, I think at times it was a bit a lot of the players were being a bit selfish in the final third and I felt there were a couple of opportunities where they could have passed the ball and they didn’t. There’s one opportunity that Ellen White had where she should have played Fran Kirby, but she didn’t.

Alessia Russo took a shot from around twenty-five yards out when she could have slipped (it) into her teammate. Fran Kirby was probably the only player that I felt was actually just playing the game and not playing the occasion. She got the second assist on the goal. She was playing the ball, she played this one time to Ellen White that nearly scored, as well.

I feel sometimes the occasion could get the better of the players and I felt like in the first half, the first twenty minutes England was making a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes. Leah Williamson was giving away the ball, Millie Bright was passing the ball into the Austrian front line. Thankfully, we got that goal after 18 minutes from Beth Mead and I feel like it settled everyone a little bit.

How important will ‘tactical tweaks’ be for Sarina Weigmann and England in the group stages? How does a coach, as well as the players, understand when to and when not to make these adjustments?

England historically makes substitutions in the 60th minute and Sarina Weigmann actually made the substitutions in the 60th minute. That’s not to say I feel like she’s predictable because I don’t think that. It was a triple substitution. I felt like Fran Kirby would probably go off at some point, because she’s obviously managing her fatigue syndrome.

I was a bit surprised she made a triple substitution. But, the substitution did bring on Chloe Kelly. Absolutely brilliant again. I love how direct she is, I love when she picks up the ball. I thought she was brilliant. Alessia Russo should have scored.

I still feel like the number nine spot is up for grabs. I really do. I know Ellen White has done brilliantly in tournaments but hasn’t had a great year at Manchester City, and I genuinely believe that maybe if Alessia Russo would have scored, that would give her the foot-in going into a couple of games. I don’t genuinely believe Sarina Weigmann is choosing players based upon what they’ve done before, I feel like she’s making in-game decisions of what they can do now.

And the fact that Beth Mead scored, I think she needed that desperately. Because she’s been brilliant for Arsenal this year, player of the year. But, she hasn’t really played great leading up to the tournament for England. So, was really happy for Beth ‘cause I love the girl, I think she’s brilliant and I’m glad she got a goal.

What did you make of the substitutes from Sarina Weigmann? 

I think definitely Chloe Kelly has been breathing down Beth Mead’s neck for a long time now and I think it’s healthy competition. I think Chloe Kelly if she gets a start I think it would probably be against Northern Ireland potentially. I think Sarina Weigmann has chosen Beth as the main number seven on the wing. But I do think she’s open to putting her in.

The only change that I would personally make is Alex Greenwood. I mean defensively you are never really gonna make a defender come on into a game, realistically, unless someone gets injured. But, I would expect Alex Greenwood to play more in the tournament, definitely. I feel for her. If she’s gonna go to the tournament and not play that’s a really big shock to me. I didn’t expect Rachel Daly to be at left-back yesterday at all.

Moving on to the England vs Norway game. What do you expect for fans for this one? Slightly different atmosphere in Brighton rather than Manchester maybe.

It’s still sold out. It’s still gonna be a lot of people. Obviously, it’s a smaller stadium. But I’m excited to go. I think that with the games have been spread out throughout the country we’re seeing a different type of fan coming to the game. We’re seeing everybody of all different ages, male, and female. I feel like everybody is coming to these games and getting excited.

I think that the Norway game will be completely different to Austria. I think Austria is a really good team. They might not score a lot of goals, but they only conceded three in the qualification. They’re very organised. That’s one thing I noticed about Austria.

Norway, they’ve always been a good team and Ada Hegerberg is back, after five years of not being on the team she’s gonna be a massive threat.

(Caroline) Graham Hansen, as well at the front. I feel we’re gonna have to really, really take care of the two forwards, because sometimes yesterday, I felt that our backline was a little bit shaky when there was a little bit of pressure. But there were a couple of shaky moments when Mary (Earps) had to pull off a really good save and you don’t want it to be getting into those late stages.

It wasn’t a great performance, but in the end, we got three points and we move on to the next game. The Norway game I think it’s gonna be really difficult. My last game was played against them and it was in the World Cup in Canada 2015, where it took Lucy Bronze scoring an unbelievable goal for us to get through.

I really think this game is gonna be hard and we’re going have to be ready and we’re gonna have to play a lot better than we did (against Austria). Because yet they won but it wasn’t a great performance. A lot of the players will admit that themselves. But, by the end of the day it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to win three or four nill for it to be a success. We won 1:0 and we go to the next game.

Maybe there was a bit of nerve or rust that the team needed to kick of? 

I think there’s definitely nerves, which actually surprised me. People were kind of making mistakes they wouldn’t usually make. I put that down to nerves and it is playing for your country. I mean these girls are now playing in big games. They’re playing at Wembley, they’re playing in the Champions League where there are a lot of people. But it’s also quite different to play at Kingsmeadow against Chelsea than for them to play at the 70-thousand-seater stadium at Old Trafford.

It must have been quite difficult. I’m sure they worked on managing their emotions, sports psychology and all those types of things.

I felt like the nerves were there in the first 15 or 20 minutes and I’m just glad that Beth (Mead) got that goal because I think that settled the nerves, and relieved a little bit of pressure.

For the England v Norway game, what are your score predictions for this game? 

I feel like I have to go for an England win, and I’m gonna go 2:1 again. I don’t see Norway beating England, I don’t, but I don’t think it’s gonna be easy. But if England plays like they did (against Austria), then I think Norway could (win).

So,  if you asked me this last week, I would probably say England will win pretty comfortably but now I think it would be a little bit more difficult than I expected.

How big of a threat do you think Ada and Hansen will be to England, and what can England do to stop them in this match?

Yeah, massive. I think, the thing about our back line is that Leah Williamson, Millie Bright, Lucy Bronze, Rachel Daly or if Alex Greenwood plays there, they’re all very good at playing the ball, they’re really footballing players. Millie Bright can play an absolutely unbelievable diagonal ball and that kind of stuff.

Leah Williamson is really good with the ball at her feet and driving out from the back line. But I’m a little bit worried about when we receive some type of pressure. Now, Hegerberg is one of the best centre-forwards in the world and she’s gonna possess a completely different threat to yesterday.

So, it’s gonna be a difficult game and Hansen as well is a fantastic player and they work really well together. And individually I think they step up when they really need to as well because obviously, Graham Hansen has had to play a lot of the time without Hegerberg the last five years. And she’s shown that she can actually do that.

But, I do think they’re gonna have to do a lot of their research. England will have to with these two players and how to stop them. Because England are very good going forward but like I said sometimes when there was a delivery into the box yesterday it didn’t look as comfortable as it probably should.

But then I also put that down to the fact that in World Cup qualification, you know, 20:0 against North Macedonia, against Latvia. We’re playing against teams that, you know, don’t really put that much pressure on England. And in the warm-up games, I thought they were really good, you know Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland, pretty tough tests, and we came through them.

But, with tournament football sometimes you know people take it to another level and I feel like Hegerberg will be that type of payer. She scored in the Champions League final against Barcelona, she seems to be able to turn it on when it really matters. So, I’m quite worried about that, because I feel like she’s the type of player that would be able to cause an upset, especially playing Brighton, in front of the England fans, it could be a potential banana skin, really because the pressure is all on England.

England will come up against the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg here. She went almost five years without playing for Norway. What do you think of Hederberg’s decision to stop representing her country and her decision to come back?

I love Hegerberg, I interviewed her when I did the Champions League final, and she is fantastic. I played against her a number of times. For me, whenever a player stands up, on what they believe is right, and they want equality, and that kind of thing, I am all for that. So, I’ve done it myself in my career, and it has cost me a lot of England caps, but you sleep at night knowing that you did the right thing.

So I think a lot of people can’t quite get their head around why a player wouldn’t want to play for their country. But it is the biggest honour, and when you are able to stand there in front of your family and sing the national anthem, it is the best feeling in the world. But, sometimes you have to make a stand for it to change. But I am happy that she is back playing for Norway because she is one of the best players in the world. And we want these players on the World stage, don’t we?

We saw this week that Spain will be without Alexia Putellas for the rest of the tournament after she ruptured her ACL. Plenty of other high-profile women players have had similar injuries like Ada Hegerberg and you yourself in 2016. Studies have shown that female footballers are up to six times more likely to rupture an ACL than male footballers. What more needs to be done to stop this from happening?

Unfortunately, it has always been a problem in the women’s game in the man’s game they tear their hamstrings. Not that I am a doctor, but I feel like it is the twitch fibres in the muscles, and men are quicker, so I thought they always tear their hamstrings we seem to tear our ACLs. Marozsán from Germany as well, same thing. And what I like for example at Chelsea, they actually already have a plan in place, that is structured around the menstrual cycle, which when I first heard about I used to think well that is a bit too far fetches, too much science. But, actually, I think it really works.

You are never going to prevent completely people from getting injured, but you can try and do all the research you can for that to be the case. And I know that Chelsea changed training around for all the individuals when it is their menstrual cycle, and stuff like that. They do a lot of research behind that, and from what I have seen, it seems to work. You will get a couple of players, like Maren Mjelda, she has done her ACL, and she is back now for Chelsea, but at the same time, you can try and prevent these kinds of things.

It does worry me because I know so many people of late that have torn their ACL, and meniscus, I had the same injury, it is the worst thing, it really is. Luckily for me, it first of my injury, and it was the hardest time of my life. And for Alexia Putellas doing this the day before the tournament starts. I just can’t get my head around it because, like I said, some things happen when you least expect it, and to train the day before is usually very low impact, usually you do, you know, set-pieces, as you are leading into the games and that type of things. It is not high intense work.

So I really feel for her, when I saw the video of her on crutches and coming out the ground, I mean Jenny Hermoso as well, but she obviously knew she was injured before the tournament. But to get this close, and for her to injure herself like that and to miss the tournament as the best player in the world, my heart goes out to her. Not a lot of people are saying it will help England’s chances, and things like that, but I can’t look at it like that. I look at it from a player’s perspective. I feel like I have so much empathy for her because I know how much it affected me when I did it so, and it wasn’t a day before or a couple of days before one of the biggest games of your career really.

Putellas is out and they’ve already lost Jennifer Hermoso to injury. Spain are still the favourites but does that open the door even more to teams like England, France and the Netherlands? Do you have England as the favourites for the tournament?

No, I had Spain as the favourites for the tournament, and I think probably a lot of people have had Spain, have had Sweden as their favourites. I don’t necessarily think England are the favourites for this tournament. Because there are other teams that have proven to be better. When in the Olympics, where they finished in tournaments, and the fact that it’s in England I feel like similar to the Euros last year, you can ride the wave with everybody getting on board and getting involved, and the fans, but it ultimately comes down to the quality on the pitch.

I do think obviously it helps every other team in the tournament. England will play them in the pathway to the final at some point. But they still have fantastic players, and I was about to say Barcelona because most of their players do play for Barcelona. I still think they are going to be a strong team. But ultimately for any other team, it is almost like Christiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, being out of the tournament the day before. It is heartbreaking, isn’t it, for the world of football because everybody wants to see the best players. And ultimately it will make a difference to the tournament. Because now maybe because Spain aren’t as much of a threat as they were.

Who do you think will be the top scorer at the tournament? Could Lauren Hemp or Ellen White win the Golden Boot?

See, I am thinking Hegerberg, based upon the fact that I just don’t think, to be fair England playing against Northern Ireland, and over the two games they played in the qualifier, they scored nine goals. Five goals in one game, four in the other.

That game could be a real catalyst for the Golden Boot, because if a player in that game, like Beth Mead could grab a hat-trick like she has done before, that puts her at, let’s say she doesn’t score against Norway, but she scored three then, that puts her at four goals. And during these tournaments, you don’t win the Golden Boot by scoring 12 goals or something like that, usually, it is around six, seven goals. Lauren Hemp for me is not a player who scores a lot of goals, she creates a lot.

Ellen White, if it was a tournament before I would have said yes, but I think the way her form has been at Manchester City, and the way England are playing now, Ellen White played last night, it was almost like she was working so hard, she was closing down the centre, putting in slide tackles, doing all the unselfish work, but that is not going to get you goals is it?

So it is almost like England is now set up for Beth Mead to score, or a Lauren Hemp, or a Chloe Kelly, or those types of players. So for me, I am going to go with Hegerberg.

From a mental perspective, what advice would you give to England to tackle the pressure of playing in front of home crowds, especially when you’re expected to do really well at the tournament?

Yeah, it must be quite hard actually, one thing I will say is you have to play the game not the occasion. And I think sometimes last night, I feel like people are playing the occasion. Sometimes people probably couldn’t believe what was going on, they are probably dazing off into the stands thinking this is unbelievable, we are playing at Old Trafford and things like that. But I do think it comes down to managing emotions. I encourage the whole country to do exactly what they are doing, get behind the players, back the team, like they are, because I think the support has been fantastic.

But I don’t want the players to think that they have to inspire the nation. Obviously, women’s football in England is still continuing to grow, but mindful of every tournament, there is all this pressure, when I played there, inspiring the nation, doing this, just let the players play football. That is ultimately what it comes down to. Yes, there are role models, but some of them might not even want to be role models, same as in the men’s game. But they end up having to be, don’t they?

So I think sometimes there is added pressure to, we have to get young girls into football, we have to inspire a nation, but ultimately, just by being out there, you are. All those young girls, all those boys that came to the game yesterday they were coming because they were excited, win lose or draw, I feel like they would have still been the same after the game. So I just want the girls to enjoy it, as much as they can, perform to their maximum, perform to their best, and hopefully it will lead to use being in the final, and who knows what might happen, but I just don’t want it to be unnecessary pressure on the team. Cause they’ve never won a tournament before, so why do we automatically assume they are going to win?

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