Defender John Terry predicted on Friday that England would be knocked out of the World Cup by Ecuador unless they improved on their group stage performances.
England face the South Americans in Sunday's second round after laboured wins over Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago and a 2-2 draw with Sweden in Group B.
"It's cut-throat now and we're excited by the fact that we need to up our game and start improving," Terry told a news conference. "If we don't, we're on a plane home.
"We're aware we're not firing on all cylinders at the moment.
"But as players we're encouraged by the fact that we're not playing very well but we're still getting results and still top of the group. Things can only get better for us.
"If I was with another team looking at England, knowing there's a lot more to come from players individually and as a team collectively, I'd be quite worried."
Against an Ecuador team who impressed many with their wins over Poland and Costa Rica, before a re-shuffled side lost 3-0 to Germany, Terry said it was important England stamped their authority early.
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England did not succeed in that against the Swedes, losing their 1-0 lead early in the second half on Tuesday and then being pegged backed a second time.
SET-PIECE WOES
On both occasions, the defence was to blame after being caught out at set-pieces.
"As a team we're going to deal with that," Terry said. "Sometimes it happens, it's hard to say we defended like that on set plays. But I'm certain it won't happen again.
"Coming out at 1-0 up at halftime we wanted to set the tempo again and really get out in the first 10-15 minutes and put them under pressure.
"We're aware we didn't do that."
Captain David Beckham was on the same wavelength, saying: "It's a chance now for us to prove to people that we can perform at this stage.
"We've done well and we're happy so far. People have said we haven't played our best football yet and our best football is still to come and hopefully that's true.
"As a team we're very high spirited and we're confident."
