Roy Hodgson has begun England's World Cup preparations by warning his players he will not tolerate any dissonant voices within the camp which might threaten the team spirit carefully built up over the two years of his tenure.

The national squad departed on Monday for a five-day training camp at Vale do Lobo in Portugal with their manager stressing the team can only make a favourable impression at the finals in Brazil, starting next month, if they are a squad united. Hodgson is hoping to ward off cliques within the travelling party, citing the disruption which undermined France's campaign so infamously in South Africa four years ago.

"Games hinge on a single moment of hazard, of the ball hitting the post and going in or going out," said Hodgson. "We all know those things. You don't have a chance to control those hazardous moments: Steven Gerrard letting the ball run under his foot and slipping. It won't happen all that often but when it happens, it happens. But the thing you can control is your teamwork, making sure you choose a group of players who are prepared to work as a team, that you deal with any problems that come up from individuals that are trying to eat away at the fabric of your team and maybe destroy your teamwork.

"I've always been very clear on that. I don't have any hesitation. When you stand in front of a group of players for the first time and say: 'Listen, the only way we're going to win this is by being a team', you'll find 20 of them will say: 'Yeah, yeah, you're right'. But then, if they don't start doing it as a team in the course of the tournament, you're quite entitled to say: 'You didn't fucking say anything about it before, you were the first to say you agreed, and now you're out of the team it's a big problem, it's not about the team any more, it's all about you.' I've never been afraid to say those things. But luckily I've not had to say it too often."

The spirit under Hodgson has been praised by senior players within the set-up, with Wayne Rooney having suggested it is the best he has experienced in over a decade as an England player. Yet the previous manager, Fabio Capello, endured disruption of a sort at the team's Rustenburg camp in South Africa – John Terry's attempts to shrug the team out of their early-tournament lethargy were perceived as a challenge to the authority of the captain and coaching staff – while the French capitulated. Les Bleus' players boycotted a training session mid-finals having lost faith in the manager, Raymond Domenech, who had sent Nicolas Anelka home after clashing with the striker.

That dispute has left the French set-up scarred, their fears of a repeat in Brazil influencing the decision to omit Samir Nasri from the 23-man squad announced last week. The Manchester City midfielder, who had missed the cut in 2010, was banned for three matches for insulting a journalist as France departed Euro 2012 and has a reputation as a troublemaker, with the current head coach, Didier Deschamps, admitting the party's overall harmony had played a major role in his selection decisions. "I built the best squad, I did not necessarily pick the 23 best French players," he said.

Those sentiments are shared by Hodgson, who feels he has the right role models in the team and among the coaches to ensure a harmonious atmosphere. "One thing is for certain: there's no chance for any team in the World Cup if they're not in it together," said the England manager.

"We've seen that in the past, examples where teams who were not together, like France in the last one where all the problems were coming out. If you want to win any tournament, if you want to win a league for that matter, you'd better make certain that you as a team are all together. That you're all singing off the same hymn sheet, that you all have the same aspirations and that you're all prepared to make sacrifices for each other.

"I've been lucky that, first of all, Gerrard has turned out to be such a superb captain, a very good catalyst for the others, someone they all look up to as a player but also as a person, somebody who has very much the right attitude. And when he's not been available, then Frank Lampard has done a very similar job, and after that you'd count Wayne Rooney as a young senior: my senior players have been very good in demanding: 'This is the mood we want, this is the type of camp we want.'

"I've also been lucky with my choice of staff. Ray [Lewington] and Gary [Neville] have different qualities to me and can identify with the players. We're quite a close group. It's not a question of 'us and them'. We are a team together and we know our only chance of success is as a team together.

"We have pushed for that and I've been lucky the players have bought into that. A lot of the younger ones have come in with a good attitude and, luckily for me, they've had very good role models to look up to."