Saturday 15 November 2014 13:52, UK
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere were at an England Football Foundations event in aid of UNICEF, and talked to Soccer AM about England's performance thus far in the European Qualifiers, life without two Three Lions stalwarts and Wayne Rooney's captaincy.
England will take a big step towards Euro 2016 if they record their fourth straight qualifying win against Slovenia at Wembley on Saturday. Roy Hodgson’s men sit three points clear at the top of Group E with a 100 per cent record from three games, with eight goals scored and none conceded on the road to France.
"We have not dropped a point yet which is nice and we are looking forward to the next game against Slovenia," said Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
"We would like to win it and we will go into it believing that we can win it but they are tough opponents - games that sometimes are not supposed to be hard turn out to be unexpectedly hard. Estonia made it hard for us and we are expecting the same from Slovenia.
"We are going to have to approach it in the right frame of mind and hopefully the talent that we will have on the pitch will shine through."
Wayne Rooney will earn his 100th cap when he leads England out on Saturday and Oxlade-Chamberlain says the Manchester United striker has really risen to the challenge of captaining his country.
"The skipper has stepped up all over - on the pitch, off the pitch and he is leading us by example," added the Arsenal attacker.
"In every single meeting, he is at the front and has taken a massive interest in helping all the young players out. He is very approachable and makes everyone feel welcome, he has been brilliant for all of us."
It was important that Rooney did step up after England lost two of their stalwarts in Frank Lampard and Stevie Gerrard and Jack Wilshire says that the team-dynamics have changed a lot.
“They were massive part of the England set-up and great ambassadors but now a new generation are coming through and it is a time for the likes of myself, Chambo and other players to step up," explained Jack Wilshere on Soccer AM.
"It’s completely different; we have adopted a new formation which seems to be working quite well at the moment.
"We cannot play that way every game because some teams play different formations so we are going to have to adapt."
