England's World Cup hopefuls must fight for places: Southgate

Gareth Southgate insists nobody can take their place in his World Cup squad for granted. Southgate's side stepped up their preparations for the World Cup with a 3-0 win against Ivory Coast in Tuesday's friendly at Wembley. He made 10 changes from Saturday's friendly victory over Switzerland to take a closer look at some of the fringe players hoping to secure a seat on the plane to Qatar in November.

Ollie Watkins and Tyrone Mings, both far from certain to make the World Cup squad, boosted their cases with goals against Ivory Coast. Watkins could serve as an understudy to Harry Kane up front, while Mings is a candidate for central defensive cover. Southgate expects the intense competition for places to fuel the desire of those seeking to make his final squad.

"They can all get on with it and fight it out amongst themselves and we'll pick the ones that are playing at the best level and who can do the job," Southgate said. "We're in a fortunate position that we do have good players. You can motivate players as a manager, but there's no higher motivation than two more on the bench that can come and take your place.

"That's how the big clubs work and we're starting to get that competition in most positions on the field. "We're always open minded, we're always assessing, we're watching them every week, we see the positive qualities and we see the little bits that, 'OK, how can we improve that a little bit?'. "Without a doubt, none of the players in the squad can sit and think they're in the 23, 26 or in the 11.