Saturday 9 September 2017 23:14, UK
Gareth Southgate would rather England pit their wits against the best than play the system to secure World Cup seeding.
A report this week outlined how FIFA's ranking system works against teams that play a lot of friendlies, especially if they lose them.
England's decision to test themselves against the world's best makes that all the more likely and leaves them 13th in the world rankings, meaning they are set to miss out on seeding for Russia next summer.
FIFA has admitted it will review its ranking system after the qualifying tournaments for 2018 World Cup are finished, but Southgate does not intend to change approach regardless.
"I get it but the option is we pick strategically positioned opponents and try and boost our ranking or we test ourselves against the very best which is what we need to do," the England boss said.
"How are we going to improve? How do we find out the level we are really at, if we don't?
"So I'm prepared to forfeit the win percentage of us as a group of staff because I think the long-term benefits for everybody far outweighs it.
"I'd love both [seeding and glamour friendlies] because how will we ever get better? We'd have a false view of where we are and we won't have to adapt to some of the challenges that those big teams pose.
"You get a false sense of security and then you go to a tournament and you've not developed a way of playing that is needed against those top teams."
Wembley friendlies against Germany and Brazil are pencilled in for November, with a March trip to Holland in March among the other preparation matches lined up ahead of next summer's tournament in Russia.
England will finalise those friendlies once qualification is secured, but preparations continue in the background and another trip to look at team bases in Russia is on the cards.
"We are actually due to go back next week," Southgate added.
"So [moving five points clear with two qualifiers left] feels like we are a little bit more entitled to go, but whatever happened against Slovakia we had to keep planning ahead. That is why we went out in the summer.
"Again, we've got a plan for the next camp, make sure we get those games right, but equally Russia and also beyond.
"We're looking at all of the young players coming through and we want to keep developing them and evolving the team."
