[Archived] European Under 21s

[DanLad]

honestly i was looking forward to watching england in this championship but i turned them off to watch the golf. was like watching paint dry

Same here. I was looking forward to watching the touranment, too. Got bored after 10 mins of the first game. Pretty pleased I did now.

[RoverMad86]

Shocking. But no suprise.

Wilshire AND Carrol might have made a difference, but we will never know.

[LeChuck]

Why do the U21s always have such awful managers? Peter Taylor did a good job in the nineties, but since then the likes of Howard Wilkinson, David Platt and now Stuart Pearce have sapped any energy and excitement you would expect from a young team. Pearce needs to go and a young, up and coming manager given a chance. It doesn't have to be an ex-international player like the FA seem to favour.

I know we have a tendency to overrate and overvalue young English talent, but look at the squad we had and the values of those players. Most are at top clubs or interesting top clubs at premium prices, yet we couldn't win a single game against inferior opposition (excluding the Spanish of course!).

Jones - £16 million

Smalling - £10 million

Henderson - £20 million

Rodwell - rumoured £25 million

Sturridge - £20 million?

Welbeck - £10 million?

All those (plus Kyle Walker) will probably become mainstays in the England team in the near future, so let's hope the team's failings are down to poor management. Given the clubs the play for/are interesting (and the top managers that therefore obviously rate them highly), you would have to think the management is probably to blame.

[roverandout]

blame the coach, coaches his teams the way he played the game, not skill, passing ability or penetration what so ever. The only player who can hold their head up high in this tournament was the back 5 and sturridge. We needed a josh machecran, wilshire type, we didnt have one at this tournament. Absolute lack of ideas going forward, why he keeps playing danny rose, who looks like a poor man's shaun wright-philips, is beyond me. They showed some good passages of play at times this evening but dont seem to be able to retain the ball well enough overall. Spain look a class apart from any team in this tournament. Muamba looks way short even at this level and £16 million for henderson? I have seen this guy in all 3 games and im yet to establish what hes good at. Kyle walker looks made for full international football as does sturridge, who was way better than any of the other england players in this competition, this guy is going to be a class act for club and country in the coming years, get him in the full squad cappello.

[grizfoot]

Can't believe Henderson went for £20million, decent player but nothing special to deserve that price-tag in my opinion. May be wrong and he could into a good player but not worth the price Liverpool paid for him in my opinion.

Jones and Smalling look quite evenly matched but I'd say Smalling is the better player on the basis of this tournament.

[Hughesy]

Jones caught out for their 1st & vital goal.

Whole defence caught out for the embarrasing 2nd.

Poor performance, Pearce needs to go and the next coach needs to have guts to pick his best possible team & squad....forget what Wenger and Co say.

No doubt English talent is over-priced and over-rated.

Henderson for £20m? Makes a change that the scousers are the ones mugged.

[roverandout]

personally i would go for ray wilkins, great player, has been coach at chelsea for years under top managers, so must be doing something right and im sure he would jump at the chance to manage the under 21s

[EWOODACE1]

personally i would go for ray wilkins, great player, has been coach at chelsea for years under top managers, so must be doing something right and im sure he would jump at the chance to manage the under 21s

good shout if he'd want it

[Kamy100]

As has happened with the senior side over the last few tournaments, the basic problem is that the our players lack technique. It is shocking to see how far behind we are in terms of keeping possession, time and again we gave possession away in this tournament, the Czech's and Ukrainian's contained us because we kept giving the ball away. If you would succeed at International level then you have to be able to pass the ball, unfortunately at the moment England side's just aren't able to do that and consequently we get caught out at tournaments.

[EWOODACE1]

the lack of movement is what i always find is the problem. once a player gives the ball he stands there watching the player who received.

simple thing in football is give and go. we dont do it. look at man utd. they do it all the time and they keep possesion.

[BangkokRover]

the lack of movement is what i always find is the problem. once a player gives the ball he stands there watching the player who received.

simple thing in football is give and go. we dont do it. look at man utd. they do it all the time and they keep possesion.

According to European football's governing body Uefa, Spain had almost 15,000 Uefa A and Pro Licence coaches in 2008 - more than double the number of any other European nation. And that is despite it taking 750 study hours to acquire a Pro Licence in Spain, compared with just 245 in England.

[patrickvalery]

So many problems with English football at the moment. Until we can teach our young players to take responsibility for the football, demand it and look to protect it better, we will always fall short.

But is it any wonder? The Premier League has become such a gravy train that the consequences of failure weigh heavy on players, coaches and even owners. As a result we breed our young players to compete and win by any means. The easy way out is for a coach to deploy big, strong athletic types to out muscle their opponent. Its not an attribute you can coach, simply a scientific approach to creating the ultimate athlete. Its lazy coaching born out of a need to stay in the premier league. Our domestic league was won by a bog average side this season. The best footballing side in the country (Arsenal) get a media roasting for not winning. The super rich Citeh splash their cash and play some of the most dire football i've ever seen. Cheslse cling to tactics Mourinho installed when his side were simply more stubborn than most and would win by graft more often than not. Then follow Spurs (nice to watch) and Liverpool. Beyond that are the dregs. The murky waters which provide employment to the Tony Pullis' and formerly Sam Allardyce's of the world. Coaches who have mastered the 'art' of grinding out results in order to keep sides on the magical gravy train. As such they gain credibility from owners and other envious clubs in these muddy waters.

Our international future exists in direct opposition to our domestic league. If the consequences of domestic failure and relegation were not so grave then we would might just see a better international side. Allow coaches to grow into a job and coach their players how to play football. Teach our youngters the joy of football. How to dribble, how to pass and spot a pass. Not how important it is to win and the price of failure. The spotlight on the PL and the money it brings has bred young lads earning vast sums of money and inflated their ego's to a level beyond their actual ability. Until this is changed we should get used to our underperforming 'lions'.

[koi]

And another dull and boring display from Spain

[BangkokRover]

So many problems with English football at the moment. Until we can teach our young players to take responsibility for the football, demand it and look to protect it better, we will always fall short.

But is it any wonder? The Premier League has become such a gravy train that the consequences of failure weigh heavy on players, coaches and even owners. As a result we breed our young players to compete and win by any means. The easy way out is for a coach to deploy big, strong athletic types to out muscle their opponent. Its not an attribute you can coach, simply a scientific approach to creating the ultimate athlete. Its lazy coaching born out of a need to stay in the premier league. Our domestic league was won by a bog average side this season. The best footballing side in the country (Arsenal) get a media roasting for not winning. The super rich Citeh splash their cash and play some of the most dire football i've ever seen. Cheslse cling to tactics Mourinho installed when his side were simply more stubborn than most and would win by graft more often than not. Then follow Spurs (nice to watch) and Liverpool. Beyond that are the dregs. The murky waters which provide employment to the Tony Pullis' and formerly Sam Allardyce's of the world. Coaches who have mastered the 'art' of grinding out results in order to keep sides on the magical gravy train. As such they gain credibility from owners and other envious clubs in these muddy waters.

Our international future exists in direct opposition to our domestic league. If the consequences of domestic failure and relegation were not so grave then we would might just see a better international side. Allow coaches to grow into a job and coach their players how to play football. Teach our youngters the joy of football. How to dribble, how to pass and spot a pass. Not how important it is to win and the price of failure. The spotlight on the PL and the money it brings has bred young lads earning vast sums of money and inflated their ego's to a level beyond their actual ability. Until this is changed we should get used to our underperforming 'lions'.

Don't forget that crazy low percentage of English players who actually play week in and week out in the EPL. We also don't have the loan system that they have in Spain or Italy where the large teams have all the national talent but a large percentage of it is loaned out to other teams to get them first team action.

The FA need nuked and started again, crazy the amount of money in football and we can produce players to at least be competitive. Of course you have to remember the UK CHAV factor where they get a nice contract and give up trying.

[cn174]

If only we'd been in the other group......

"People don't realise the magnitude of the group we were put in," said Pearce, whose side came into the event ranked number one having reached the semi-final and final in the last two tournaments.

He added: "You've only got to look at the other group. A team's come out of that group having lost two matches.

"That tells you they might have lumped the stronger teams together. But that's tournament football."

It is true that the other group was weaker, but still we should've been good enough to beat both Ukraine and Czech.

[Billy Castell]

So we get knocked out in the group stages, so Pearce gets a new contract. OK then

[cn174]

So we get knocked out in the group stages, so Pearce gets a new contract. OK then

We offered it to him in March. Didn't we do the same to Capello?

Most other countries have thier major tournament then decide accordingly!

[BangkokRover]

So we get knocked out in the group stages, so Pearce gets a new contract. OK then

RSC plays 9 games with out any meaningful impact but is supposedly on his way back to Ewood, if those in the know are to be believed?

[pick32]

Pearce had one bad tournament I think he should stay on. If we had whilshere and Carrol it could have been alot different. He has finished in the semi finals and last time round the final, yes we got battered of germany but it was basically the exact same German team that swept our first team aside.

[DE.]

"People don't realise the magnitude of the group we were put in," said Pearce, whose side came into the event ranked number one having reached the semi-final and final in the last two tournaments.

He added: "You've only got to look at the other group. A team's come out of that group having lost two matches.

"That tells you they might have lumped the stronger teams together. But that's tournament football."

Difference is the team that lost two matches also won their other one, something we failed to do against any of the teams in our group.

The Czechs and Ukraine weren't even that good - we were just insipid and devoid of any creative ideas. Sound familiar...?

[davulsukur]

Why do the U21s always have such awful managers? Peter Taylor did a good job in the nineties, but since then the likes of Howard Wilkinson, David Platt and now Stuart Pearce have sapped any energy and excitement you would expect from a young team. Pearce needs to go and a young, up and coming manager given a chance. It doesn't have to be an ex-international player like the FA seem to favour.

I know we have a tendency to overrate and overvalue young English talent, but look at the squad we had and the values of those players. Most are at top clubs or interesting top clubs at premium prices, yet we couldn't win a single game against inferior opposition (excluding the Spanish of course!).

Jones - £16 million

Smalling - £10 million

Henderson - £20 million

Rodwell - rumoured £25 million

Sturridge - £20 million?

Welbeck - £10 million?

All those (plus Kyle Walker) will probably become mainstays in the England team in the near future, so let's hope the team's failings are down to poor management. Given the clubs the play for/are interesting (and the top managers that therefore obviously rate them highly), you would have to think the management is probably to blame.

Totally agree with that, same with the seniors really.