England Women vs USA Women: Emma Hayes tipped to win Wembley tactical battle

Sarina Wiegman’s England welcome Emma Hayes and the United States to Wembley on Saturday, a match that should seriously test the strength-in-depth of two injury-hit squads.

The Lionesses really struggled in last month’s internationals and have a lot of work to do ahead of defending their European crown next summer. The 4-3 defeat to Germany exposed vulnerabilities in defence and midfield, while the hard-fought 2-1 victory over South Africa a few days later indicated the side’s fear factor may be dwindling.

Hayes stormed out of the blocks after leaving Chelsea, brilliantly leading USA to Olympic gold in Paris. She has brought structure and aggression to a side that looked lost under Vlatko Andonovski, once again reminding the world that they are a force to be reckoned with.

We’re backing there to be a ton of goals in this one. Both sides are ruthless and rarely participate in matches where the net doesn’t bulge multiple times.

England have scored 28 in their last seven outings, conceding 13, while the USA have netted nine in their last three. Hayes has worked hard to tighten both midfield and defence, though, making the Americans far trickier prospect to breach. They’ve not conceded more than once in seven matches, all the way back to the SheBelieves Cup final victory over Canada in April.

Now, the elephant in the room. England will be without three major goal threats in Lauren Hemp, Lauren James and Ella Toone. Niamh Charles’ threat from left-back will also be absent in a match that could see Wiegman experiment before starting to nail down her best side for the year ahead.

Hayes also has attacking issues. The considerable talent of Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith will all miss the game, which on paper, they would have been licking their lips at.

England’s awful press left huge gaps for Germany to run into last month, easily overloading a mismatched defence of Leah Willamson and Millie Bright, who quite oddly continue to play on the reverse centre-back roles they’re so used to with their respective clubs.

This adds pressure to their passing and eliminates natural passing lanes to Keira Walsh, who was drowned out by a Germany side that didn’t need to be on top form to beat England in their own backyard.

USA play on the front foot under Hayes, and even without their star forwards, have more than enough talent to punish Wiegman’s ageing defence. Punters may find value in backing multiple goals on football betting sites, while siding with the US also adds a snip of value that feels like it has a good chance of paying off.

It’s rare that England don’t score, though, no matter the opponent. Even against Germany, when the tide was so firmly against them, they scored three goals in four shots on target, with a Georgia Stanway double and Lucy Bronze getting forward to try and salvage a result.

Wiegman can instil confidence by having the Lionesses go toe-to-toe with the US and not standing off them like they did against the Germans, a factor that betting sites have no doubt taken into account with tempting prices on a high-scoring game.

England Women vs USA Women prediction: USA win and five or more match goals - 11/1 William Hill

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