Anderson: ‘We keep building’

The Three Lions kick-off the 2025-26 season with a new UEFA Nations League campaign, when they take on Spain at a sold-out Wembley on Saturday 25 September (7.45pm BST).

Ahead of the game, midfielder Elliot Anderson spoke exclusively to the England matchday programme about the summer just gone, the new season and some of his personal highlights from the trip to North America. You can read the full interview in the programme, and you can also order a copy online here. 

Elliot, looking ahead to the matches in this window, they don’t get much bigger than Spain at home. How are you feeling about it?

They’re obviously world champions, so we’re really looking forward to this game. There’s no better game to have after what happened in the summer, to really test ourselves again and go up against a top-quality team. So, yeah, we’re really looking forward to this one.

They’re world champions now. Did you watch them in the final, and what was your verdict on the way they play and perhaps how you can approach this game?

Yeah, they’re obviously a very possession-based team. They like to have the ball, which is what we want to do, so it’ll be an interesting game. We’ll be going after them and it’ll be two good teams going at it, I think.

Thomas Tuchel has talked about how this game is an opportunity to put the World Cup to bed and test yourselves against the best. Are you glad you’re playing such a strong team to begin the campaign?

Yeah, I think so. It’s definitely a good chance to carry on where we were at. It’s not necessarily a new start; we just need to keep building from what we had. And then, obviously, to test yourself against the world champions will be really good. It’ll definitely show if we can perform against them.

Going back to the World Cup, how do you reflect on that overall experience now that you’ve had time to process the highs and lows? What was it like on a personal level?

It was amazing. It was probably the highlight of my career. Playing at the World Cup for your country was surreal, really. Obviously, the nation was proud of us and we just fell short, which was really, really disappointing. But it is what it is and we’ll keep building. We’re all together – we win together, we lose together. I thoroughly enjoyed the seven weeks.

Looking back at the happy memories, what was the best moment for you from the whole experience?

I’ve got two. I would either say playing against Mexico in Mexico, or obviously the semi-final. It didn’t end well, but just playing against Argentina in the semi-final of the World Cup was amazing. But I think that final whistle at the Azteca, with so many things we went through there, difficult situations, going down to ten men and their fans – I think that game was really special. I’d say it’s a highlight of my life.