ROBBO DROPS BACK THREE HINT
Paul Robinson admits the England players have been working on the deployment of a three-man defence against Macedonia.
Reports are suggesting that Three Lions coach Steve McClaren will ditch a traditional back four in favour of three central defenders for Saturday's Euro 2008 qualifier.
England keeper Robinson feels the team have been making progress under McClaren, in large part due to the work being put in on the training ground.
"The manager's come in and told us what he expects of us, what he wants from us and the players have put demands on themselves as well," Robinson told Sky Sports News.
"I think you've seen us playing with a lot more freedom.
"We've got a good spine going through the whole team. We've got a good defence and I like to think myself I'm part of that.
"We've done very well, we've all got good relationships, we know each other's games well enough now and it's going from strength to strength.
"Myself and the defence work together as a unit. We pride ourselves on keeping a clean sheet.
"If we can keep them out, and the strikers score, we are going to win football matches.
"He's (McClaren) working on all aspects of the game. We've done defensive work this week.
"In the last two get-togethers, he's been working with a back four and a back three so we can adapt to both situations. We've been doing a lot of work."
Though England have started with three successive wins under McClaren, Robinson admits there were lessons to be learned from last month's 1-0 success in Macedonia.
He added: "In the second half against Macedonia, we were a little bit disappointed, not with the way we played, more the way we didn't play.
"We sat off a little too much and did a bit too much defending. We had a video and went through a few things.
"Instead of killing the game off, we did too much defending and that's something we want to work on."
