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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Rachel Yankey

Rachel Yankey column: Alex Greenwood has key role to play for England at World Cup

England are clearly missing what Leah Williamson brings to their defence.

Leah is brave on the ball and the way she drives out from the back makes things easier for Keira Walsh playing in front of her.

Teams have got better at targeting Keira and it makes her life easier when she has a centre-back who wants to push forward. It gives the opposition something different to think about.

In Alex Greenwood, Sarina Wiegman has someone who can offer what Leah does. But Alex played at left-back against Haiti and I think Sarina will stick with that for the Denmark game, meaning Jess Carter and Millie Bright will be the two centre-backs.

That is an insight into the way Sarina looks at the game. She has opted more for building a partnership at the back and focusing on how the team defends, rather than how defensive players build attacks from the back.

Jess was one of our best players against Haiti. Her one-to-one defending showed, and her recovery runs kept England in the game at some points.

She did nothing wrong, so why would you change the defence? Jess and Millie are Chelsea team-mates and if you keep them together they can form a good partnership.

I think that is what Sarina is looking to build on, that kind of partnership, even if I do think Alex would be better playing out from the back.

You have seen her do it for Manchester City. She is so good at coming out with the ball and she is so good on the ball.

But Alex can still get on the ball from left-back and against Haiti she looked to me like a definite outlet in terms of how England were getting out from the back.

If you don’t have a centre-back willing to drive out, it means your whole team needs more movement.

She looked to me like a definite outlet in terms of how England were getting out from the back

Especially whoever is playing in that midfield No10 area, they have got to be willing to open up spaces and get on the ball more. England have to do that better against Denmark.

The centre-backs, Jess and Millie, have got their strengths and weaknesses, and one of the weaknesses of Alex would probably be her pace.

The same goes for Millie, especially when she has not played for a while, which is another reason why Sarina may stick with Jess.

Denmark captain Pernille Harder is one of the quickest players running with the ball, so you need someone with pace up against her. She is Denmark’s superstar, she is fantastic.

The bonus England have is that Jess and Millie know her very well from Chelsea. They would have played against her so many times in training and that can be a positive.

After four months out, Millie will have been pleased to get through that first game against Haiti. It will take her a few games to get back to being fully sharp.

She has been out for so long and, with that in mind, Millie had a really good game.

It was tough, and she got questioned, but she got through it.

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