England began their preparations for this summer’s European Championships in the Netherlands with a 1-0 defeat to Norway and a 0-0 draw against Olympic silver medallists Sweden in La Manga.

An Ada Hegerberg header was the difference in the first match before head coach Mark Sampson made 10 changes against Pia Sundhage’s Sweden and arguably should have come away with the win.

Despite struggling once again to breach the defences of some of the world’s top nations, Sampson believes there are a lot of positives to take away from their first camp of the year.

“I think we have to reflect on the camp as a whole,” said Sampson. “We were aware the games would be difficult, it was more about getting minutes and sending players back to their clubs in a better position than when they arrived.

“We came out here with a group of excited players wondering what was going to happen this year and they go back with a lot of knowledge about where we want to take this team and massively motivated to make that happen.”

It’s now five games from six against the world’s top 10 sides that England have failed to score in, only a sole Toni Duggan header against Germany last March the standout moment for the Lionesses.

With fan frustration growing at the lack of chances England are creating, Sampson accepts it’s an area that needs “some drastic improvements.”

“That final third is the most difficult area at the moment, we’ve got to improve that, it’s simple and clear to see.”

He continued: “We got players into good positions and good spaces but we never really did enough to work their goalkeeper.”

One area Sampson was happy to praise was his goalkeeper, Liverpool’s Siobhan Chamberlain making two rare appearances after injury to Karen Bardsley stopped her travelling with the team to Spain.

“Siobhan was really good, it was an important camp for her and she’ll go away from this with a massive confidence boost.

Not that she needs that because behind the scenes we all believe that she’s a great goalkeeper.

“Aside from that I thought everyone applied themselves so well, it’s difficult when you have players playing together for the first time, we’ve not seen that defence together before and we’ve not seen that attack together before.”

The Lionesses now return to the US in March for the second annual SheBelieves Cup. The tournament will provide England opportunity to face their world champion hosts — plus Euro rivals France and Germany.

If England’s goal drought continues for the next three games, it could pose big issues moving forward but Sampson is currently concentrating on making sure his players reach the best of their abilities ahead of the Euros in July.

“Tactically we’re a team that is flexible,” said Sampson. “We base ourselves on a lot of principles no matter what formation or system we play.

“The players show their identity because there’s a reason these players are wearing England shirts and it’s because they’re great at things.

“We want to give them an opportunity to show what they’re great at and hide away perhaps what they’re not so good at.

“We’ve seen players show that identity here and that’s important because to be a great team, you need great players.

Due to the nature of the training camp, Sampson was able to take more than the usual 23 players to La Manga but will have to drop five of the players who travelled to Spain for next month’s trip across the pond.

And with injured players set to return sooner rather than later, the boss accepts he’s got plenty of competition within the squad.

He said: “We’ve got players back home who I hope will be available, we want competition for places but I hope the group feel an element of security too.

“We have trust in all the players but some have really put their hands up very high in the air to be on that plane to the United States and others will go away thinking they’ve got a bit of work to do to be in contention for the European Championships.

While Chelsea’s Fran Kirby and Liverpool’s Alex Greenwood have been long-term absentees, Sampson believes he may only be able to call upon Casey Stoney and the returning Bardsley for the SheBelieves Cup.

“Our medical team are really, really good, “said Sampson. “We get daily updates and the players really take responsibility too.

“I think [Fran] Kirby and [Alex] Greenwood will definitely be no-goers but Casey [Stoney] has a better chance of being available. Obviously we hope Karen Bardsley will be available too but we think it will too soon for a couple of them.”

@RichJLaverty