ALL TOGETHER NOW

Pickford talks up team unity as England prepare for Croatia test

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England keeper Jordan Pickford has spoken of his plan is to create a “brotherhood” among the squad, with Jude Bellingham suggesting in an in-house interview that the togetherness was not there in Euro 2024, despite a run to the final.

Ahead of Wednesday's game against Croatia, Pickford said it is never ‐smooth sailing” at a tournament, but insisted there was a “togetherness”.

“ I've always said we've got a good togetherness,” he said. “ Ever since 2018, you live on a journey, you go on a journey with everybody and you've got to smile, you've got to be happy.

“ I've always said in tournaments, it's not smooth sailing, it's always going to be a roller coaster.

“ People will have down days, you might be sick of each other for the odd day, that's part and parcel of it.

“ But this camp, the manager, once that brotherhood is together, that's what I mentioned earlier, he'll keep pushing that and I think it's down to the players to keep driving that.