A ring of steel and three at the back for England at Wembley

Security will be tight for Sunday's World Cup qualifier as pundits look forward to more experimentation from Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate
(Image credit: Philipp Schmidli/Getty Images Sport)

In the wake of this week's terror attack on Parliament, security will be ramped up at Wembley when England take on Lithuania on Sunday.

There will be armed police on patrol and extensive searches of fans as they enter the ground, reports the Daily Mirror.

"Match organisers have moved to ensure that a ring of steel is in place around the stadium to ensure that supporter safety is guaranteed," says the paper.

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"It is believed the operation will likely be a repeat of when France visited Wembley following the Paris attacks in November 2015."

On the field, Gareth Southgate will be hoping his side can build on their performance against Germany on Wednesday night.

His side were beaten but there were plenty of positives to take from the game, says Goal.com, as "a new formation and number of new faces enjoyed a successful runout against the world champions".

There is little to fear from the visitors, who have won only one of their last 17 matches away from home – against San Marino – and have scored only six goals in that time.

This should give Southgate licence to continue with his new 3-4-3 formation, which was unveiled midweek, as he attempts to reinvent England as a modern side capable of competing against the big nations.

"While it's natural that an England manager might tend towards conservatism, to do one's best to avoid being the guy who failed to even qualify, you hope that Southgate might continue with a little experimentation against Lithuania," says Nick Miller of The Guardian. "Anything to make England games interesting."

However, Oliver Kay of The Times warns that Southgate may revert to a back four for the game on Sunday, but he declares himself a fan of the three-man central defence.

It's a formation "in which the national team has tended to look surprisingly comfortable on the rare occasions that it has been tried", he says.

"It suits a squad with energetic, attack-minded wing-backs and with the feeling, encouraged by Southgate, that the attack should be built around clever players such as Lallana and Alli, drifting infield between the lines, rather than orthodox wing play."