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ENGLAND have regained the fear factor following a run of “aggressive” wins since the World Cup last summer, skipper Wayne Rooney has said.Roy Hodgson’s side left Brazil on a low after becoming the first England side since 1958 to exit at the group stage of a World Cup, returning home with their lowest ever points tally.But since then things have turned around and they will face Italy today looking for an eighth straight win, having adopted a more aggressive approach to their games.

“The players are so quick and when we lose the ball we want to be aggressive and win it back quickly,” Rooney said.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the manager talk about those little ‘furies’ – that when we lose the ball we’ve to win it back as quickly as possible. “There are times when you go and don’t get it, but that’s where the defence probably doesn’t get the credit it deserves because they’re pushing in right behind us to close the space off. With the players we’ve got, we’ve to play like that.”

England cannot always employ the same tactics, but Rooney believes they are getting better at judging when to put teams in “uncomfortable positions”.

“You don’t want to go into games and teams enjoy playing against you,” Rooney said.

“You want teams to look at England and think, ‘we know we’ve a tough game, it’s going to be physically hard against them, we’re going to have to defend and we’re going to have to be good on the ball to keep the ball’”.

“That’s what we want teams to feel when they come up against us. Certainly since the World Cup we’ve done that.”

Today’s match in Italy will be key test for Hodgson’s men, little over nine months since the Azzurri triumphed 2-1 in their World Cup group opener deep in Manaus.— SuperSport