Saturday 13 June 2015 21:15, UK
Roy Hodgson is desperate for England to rediscover their clinical edge after last weekend’s lacklustre goalless draw with the Republic of Ireland.
Clear-cut chances were few and far between in the friendly at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium in what proved to be something of an anti-climax for supporters from both countries.
But England have a 100 per cent record during qualifying for Euro 2016 and Hodgson is eager for his side to maintain that and recapture their killer instinct in front of goal when they take on Slovenia on Sunday.
"It doesn't matter where the goals come from, that is just a statistic," the England manager said.
"That's not something that bothers me as much as hoping that we can improve our play in the final third.
"Quite often we have a lot of possession and get ourselves into good positions in those areas and we now need to be a bit more ruthless with our final ball and finishing, so we don't get ourselves in good positions and we have no goals to show from it."
Slovenia have been in decent form after a run of four straight home wins without conceding and sit second in Group E, although England are unbeaten in their last 10 matches.
"Once you get up to nine or 10 games unbeaten at any level, you are doing pretty well," Hodgson said. "Getting past that 10-mark is difficult.
"I think more importantly for us is the level of performance on Sunday, which we then believe will give us a result.
"It's points in the group that matter and it's qualifying as early as we can for France that matters because that might give us some options to look at some other players were we to qualify early.
"This match is all about important points in the group, making sure we keep the distance we have at the moment from Slovenia and hopefully we can increase that distance.
"That would put us in the driving seat and the records and the statistics, actually pale into insignificance when it comes to the importance of the performance."
