Sarina Wiegman drops team selection hint ahead of South Africa clash | OneFootball

England manager Sarina Wiegman has hinted there will be changes to her starting XI ahead of their friendly against South Africa on Tuesday evening.

The Lionesses kicked off the first international break of the 2024/25 season with a pulsating 4-3 defeat against rivals Germany at Wembley on Friday night. Georgia Stanway and Lucy Bronze were among the goals for England, but it wasn’t enough to clinch a victory.

Now, they’re gearing up to face South Africa at the Coventry Building Society Arena, and everything they do is in preparation for next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland. England are the current holders of the trophy after their triumph in 2022, but there is work to do if they are to retain the title in July.

Wiegman has revealed there will be changes to the starting lineup on Tuesday night, but didn’t go into detail about which players will come in or out of the team. The manager cited the need to test out different combinations, as well as managing gameload, as the key reasons behind selection decisions.

“You will see different faces tomorrow,” she said to media on Monday. “You will see changes.

Wiegman may look to make defensive changes after England conceded four goals against Germany last week / Justin Setterfield/GettyImages

“We want to try out things, we want to see players and we want to see connections. Also, with so many games coming up and before this camp, we want to manage minutes.

“As the game develops, it is not so static anymore. You see different shapes in the game all the time. The top level teams are able to change shape, and for us it’s how we defend that, which means we need to be connected and aligned in moments.

“But also, in possession, we want to be unpredictable, too. We always play to win, but your shape needs to be different, and that needs a lot of alignment. We just want to be build to be unpredictable.”

Before the end of the year, England will play a further two friendlies during the November international break. The first will be against Emma Hayes' Olympic champions the USA, followed by a game against next year's Euros hosts Switzerland.