Phil Neville urges his England Lionesses to bare teeth in SheBelieves Cup

England women step up their World Cup preparations by competing in the SheBelieves Cup this week, starting with tonight’s clash against Brazil.

The Lionesses will play three games in the United States over the next seven days as part of the round-robin tournament — an invitation-only event run by US Soccer which also features the hosts and Japan.

Brazil boast one of the world’s most celebrated players in Orlando Pride forward Marta but they were beaten 1-0 by Phil Neville’s side in a friendly in October.

Neville’s notable absentees include Millie Bright, Jill Scott and Jordan Nobbs and he is likely to give playing time to a host of young rookies over the next week, including Leah Williamson (left), Beth Mead, Abbie McManus and Chioma Ubogagu.

Arsenal midfielder Nobbs will miss this summer’s World Cup with a long-term knee injury but Neville has still included his vice-captain in the preparations for the event in France, even if the injury has prevented her from travelling to the States.

“She met us on Sunday at Heathrow when we left and spent a couple of hours with us,” he said.

“She’s on most calls that the captains have with myself and my assistants, with the team operations managers. She’s still with us, but ultimately she’s a massive loss on the field. You need people like Jordan, Jill Scott, Millie Bright — these are big players. But this trip is about other people taking their opportunity to grab that spot.”

The Lionesses lost just twice in 12 matches last year but they struggled to be clinical in front of goal and Neville knows they must be more ruthless.

“Brazil will be better [than they were in October] and it will be a lot tougher,” he said. “We played really well that day and it should have been three or four- nil. That’s what disappointed me.”

The Lionesses finished second in last season’s SheBelieves Cup. They started with a 4-1 win over France in Neville’s first match as head coach, before drawing 2-2 with Germany and losing 1-0 against the US in the decider.