Steven Gerrard and Jack Wilshere look ahead to taking on rivals Scotland in a friendly match at Wembley – and Gerrard, the England captain, also commented on the speculation surrounding Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez in Hertfordshire on Tuesday (13th August).
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Steven Gerrard, England captain(on whether he’d like to see more England v Scotland matches):“Yeah definitely, this is a friendly game but everyone’s looking forward to it. It’s got an edge to it because we know an awful lot about their players and they know about us. I’ve enjoyed all the other close games we’ve played against Ireland and Wales, hopefully more of these fixtures are not too far away.”
Steven Gerrard, England captain(on Rio Ferdinand’s comments that England need to change their approach):“Not really. To be honest with you I’m not really too interesting in what Rio Ferdinand’s got to say about this group of players. I think when you play for England, there’s always a lot of opinions from outside the group, especially in a World Cup year there’s going to be more people voicing their opinions against the group, what they think but when we’re inside we don’t really take much notice as to what gets said outside.”
Steven Gerrard, England captain(on Wayne Rooney’s fitness):Well I think everybody knows he’s certainly not match fit as he hasn’t played in any friendly games throughout the summer but it’s the same old Wayne Rooney in training. He looks good, he’s scoring goals and he’s certainly ready to play, he’s prepared really well but he needs these minutes obviously for his own personal fitness. I’m sure he’s itching to start tomorrow.”Question: “Have you talked about his situation at Manchester United at all?”Gerrard: “Yeah, we have yeah.”Question: “And what observations can you draw from that?”Gerrard: “It’s none of my business and I don’t think it’s fair on Wayne to talk about what we spoke about but of course I’m close to him. I respect the situation but for me it’s all about how Wayne Rooney feels for tomorrow’s game. I’m sure he’ll sort the other problems out for himself.”
Jack Wilshere, England midfielder(on what he’s expecting from the Scotland game):“As Stevie (Gerrard) said we’re expecting a tough start, it’ll almost be like a Premier League game – the intensity, there’ll be tackles flying in. It’s a friendly game but there’s never a friendly between England and Scotland and we’ll be up for it as well.”
