Owen Hargreaves has called on England to repair their flagging confidence with an emphatic victory in Wednesday's European Championship qualifier with minnows Andorra.
England were restricted to a goalless draw against Israel in Tel Aviv at the weekend, a result which leaves them five points adrift of group leaders Croatia and in danger of failing to reach the 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland.
It extended their run without a victory to five matches and head coach Steve McClaren has come in for stinging criticism amid speculation about his future.
Hargreaves recognises that England have to perform better - most notably in creating chances for the likes of Wayne Rooney and the other attack-minded players.
The Bayern Munich midfielder said: "Are we underdogs to qualify? Not at all. England is never an underdog but we need to perform better and win games.
"Confidence comes from winning games and, when that doesn't happen, it will affect the team.
"We need a great result on Wednesday. Andorra is not a fantastic team and we have already beaten them 5-0 but we need a great result for ourselves.
"Hopefully we can score a few goals and get our confidence back up."
Hargreaves admitted: "After Saturday, the manager was down, everyone was down, the fans were down. We expected more from ourselves. We expected three points.
"It was a very quiet dressing room. We were disappointed we didn't win against Israel and we are going to have to do a better job in the future.
"Technically we are a better side than Israel but we need just to show that sort of thing, prove it and win games."
Rooney has gone 33 months since his last competitive goal against Croatia during Euro 2004.
Hargreaves said: "The most important thing is to get 'Wazza' (Rooney) on the ball along with people like Aaron Lennon and Steven Gerrard because they will change the game.
"At times we didn't look like scoring and we need to get those players into positions where they can create chances.
"But it is very difficult when you play away from home and the opposition defend with just 10 players behind the ball. It is difficult to create chances even for a Wazza, a Lennon or an AJ (Andy Johnson).
"We need to score goals. It's the most important thing. We need to get more set pieces, free-kicks, just create chances and put teams under pressure."
It extended their run without a victory to five matches and head coach Steve McClaren has come in for stinging criticism amid speculation about his future.
Hargreaves recognises that England have to perform better - most notably in creating chances for the likes of Wayne Rooney and the other attack-minded players.
The Bayern Munich midfielder said: "Are we underdogs to qualify? Not at all. England is never an underdog but we need to perform better and win games.
"Confidence comes from winning games and, when that doesn't happen, it will affect the team.
"We need a great result on Wednesday. Andorra is not a fantastic team and we have already beaten them 5-0 but we need a great result for ourselves.
"Hopefully we can score a few goals and get our confidence back up."
Hargreaves admitted: "After Saturday, the manager was down, everyone was down, the fans were down. We expected more from ourselves. We expected three points.
"It was a very quiet dressing room. We were disappointed we didn't win against Israel and we are going to have to do a better job in the future.
"Technically we are a better side than Israel but we need just to show that sort of thing, prove it and win games."
Rooney has gone 33 months since his last competitive goal against Croatia during Euro 2004.
Hargreaves said: "The most important thing is to get 'Wazza' (Rooney) on the ball along with people like Aaron Lennon and Steven Gerrard because they will change the game.
"At times we didn't look like scoring and we need to get those players into positions where they can create chances.
"But it is very difficult when you play away from home and the opposition defend with just 10 players behind the ball. It is difficult to create chances even for a Wazza, a Lennon or an AJ (Andy Johnson).
"We need to score goals. It's the most important thing. We need to get more set pieces, free-kicks, just create chances and put teams under pressure."
Copyright (c) Press Association
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