Category: Opinion

This is how it ends, not with a roar but a whimper… and is the England U21’s early exit the nation’s fault?

Whoosh, what was that? That was England U21’s stay at the European Championship, over pretty quickly wasn’t it?

Stuart Pearce deserves credit because at no point has he tried to defend the team. The most positive thing I heard him say was before the Italy game when he said that ‘form should give the players promise and pride’ coming into the tournament. He was right, it should have done, but promise is nothing if you don’t fulfil it. After the Norway game, when it was confirmed that England would need a plane ticket home rather than a hotel reservation for the knockout stage, Pearce told us ‘the players haven’t done themselves credit. You get what you deserve and that’s nothing’.  It didn’t get better.

Team wise no one covered themselves in glory; Butland looked dodgy, Clyne looked impressive going forward not so much in defence, Jordan Henderson looked okay but will improve greatly if he is given a role to stick to, Shelvey could have done more, Ince is nowhere near as good as his club manager thinks and Zaha was a shadow of the lad we saw at Palace. Redmond deserves a pat on the back for stepping up a level and showing some spirit and Wisdom gave a display worthy of the captain’s armband he wore when he started against Israel.

Now all the players seem to want ‘Psycho’ to stay in charge, but they haven’t given him any reason to. The coaching and ideas from him either haven’t been good enough or the players have not listened. Those outside seem to be very sure that it’s because some eligible players were playing in meaningless senior friendlies rather than playing in this completion. Some point to the fact that teams like  Norway include ‘senior’ players who can step up or down as required, for them the U21’s is not a punishment and it’s not slowing development, it’s gaining experience.

Pearce may well believe he has unfinished business with this squad, he may not want to leave the job on such a low but on the other hand he may just think the time is right to look at other offers and leave the titanic for someone else to steer.

Connor Wickham was in the newspaper this morning saying that he was aware the team had let the country down, on the contrary, I think no-one was really bothered and they wouldn’t have been until we had achieved a place in the knock out stages. I think people will think that the mathematics of we can win added to  first team eliminated equals a sum the English football public have heard many times before. Danny Rose hit the nail on the head with his comments, “I don’t know why people automatically expect England to be contending for these competitions and winning them.” Yes people, it has taken years of phoning in the tournament performances and years of early departures and still we haven’t got the message? Still we expect better?  How dare we! Gawwwwd!

Unrealistic expectations is perhaps what England does at senior level but at U21 level it was not unrealistic to expect qualification for the next stage, just because we haven’t won an important trophy since Noah built the ark it doesn’t mean the football fans of this country will stop expecting from our teams.

The players let themselves down, they know it, they have a manager who knows it, well, for now they do anyway.

As Stuart Pearce boards the plane that would take him and his squad back to England there are a lot of questions hanging around from their display at the U21 European Championship.  They went into their final game against Israel hoping to avoid the wooden spoon, hoping that they could put on a display which wouldn’t make so many question so much about the U21 National set up.

Israel (4-2-3-1):  Kleyman, Verta, Ben Harush, Davidzada, Krieff, Biton (C), Sallalich, Dabbur, Zaguri, Turgeman.

Subs Used: Altman, Azam, Barouch

England (4-2-3-1):  Steele, Clyne, Wisdom (C), Lees, Rose, Chalobah, McEachran, Zaha, Shelvey, Ince, Wickham

Subs Used: Henderson, Redmond, Sordell

The game, held at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, started once again with England looking bright and full of attacking promise; Wilfried Zaha on the right tried to look dangerous and cross and at one point Jonjo Shelvey did, Connor Wickham left it to Thomas Ince who missed the ball and fell over. Jonjo Shelvey, restored to the starting line up, tried to make an impact; he made a power run and found Ince who had his shot blocked before Shelvey himself put the ball over.

England were dictating a quick tempo in the early going with lots of quick passing and everyone was looking to be involved. A good move from the back saw Danny Rose get forward, the ball found Wilfried Zaha on the left,  Rose made his way into the penalty area between two Israel defenders as the cross came in and the ball fell to the Tottenham man,  who put the shot quite a bit wide of the mark. Just after the half hour Zaha clipped a nice through ball for Ince who was denied by Boris Kleyman in the Israel goal.  Zaha followed up with a header which was also saved.

For the second half Thomas Ince was replaced by Jordan Henderson, somewhat surprising given Ince’s impact in the first period. The second half saw positive work from McEachran and Zaha as they combined before a blocked shot from Connor Wickham and it was the Sunderland striker that benefited when Jonjo Shelvey broke up an Israel attack, Andre Wisdom sprang forward and Wickham caressed  a 25 yard curler, it went just over the bar.

Judging by Israel’s response they didn’t want to be out done by Wickham’s shot from distance and they went close to taking the lead just before the hour through Biton; as England backed off, Israel’s captain unleashed a thunderous shot which smacked the crossbar and rebounded the full 35 yards back to him. That shot was good enough for any team to take the lead, and Israel grew in confidence as a result, Verta shot wide and there was a panicky moment from Luke Steele before they did eventually trouble the scoreboard operator;  Nir Biton played a one two and curls the return pass into the bottom corner.

With that the fat lady sang and as Bruce Springsteen once said ‘man, that was all she wrote’.  At the point of writing I still don’t know if Tom Ince was injured but I think he had to be because England missed him in the second half and you have to think Pearce wouldn’t make that change unless he had to. Annoyingly again, England looked all set to make put the ball in the net, they attacked with promise but never converted. There isn’t many of that England squad that can be happy with their performance tonight or over the tournament in general.

Forget all talk about players who should have been at this tournament and were absent, it has no bearing on anything because the players who were selected should have had enough to qualify.

Man of the Match:

Biton – that shot was class and when Israel decided to go for it, it all seemed to go through him, scoring the winning goal to boot.

England’s U21 European Championship campaign bites the dust against ice cold Norway.

Stuart Pearce rang the changes in an attempt to invigorate the play and find the cutting edge that they severely lacked against Italy in their last game; Adam Smith replaced Nathaniel Clyne, Nathaniel Chalobah partnered Jason Lowe in front of the back four and Jordan Henderson  moved to  the centre of a midfield three with Nathan Redmond on the left and the returning Tom Ince on the right. Wilfried Zaha played up front, replacing Connor Wickham.

England (4-2-3-1):  Butland, Smith, Caulkner, Dawson, Rose, Chalobah, Lowe, Ince, Henderson (C), Redmond, Zaha.

Subs Used: Wickham, Shelvey, Wisdom

Norway (4-3-3): Nyland, Elabdellaoui, Rogne, Semb Berge, Strandberg (C), Singh, Johansen, Eikrem, Berget, Pedersen, Nielsen.

Subs Used: Ibrahim, Nordtveit, Linnes

The opening gave the impression that it was all going to go England’s way, they had time, space and pace through Danny Rose, the left back looked lively and along with Tom Ince he tried to put England ahead with early shots. Tom Ince then won a free kick, Henderson took it and Rose saw his header go over the bar.

England knew they had to push forward and it looked only a matter of time before they scored, so when it was Norway that made the breakthrough it is fair to say it was against the run of play. Jack Butland came for a corner and flapped, Norway kept the pressure on and England could not clear their lines, it was headed back into the area for Fredrik Semb Berge to swivel and score on fifteen minutes.

As the half went on the inventive, purposeful forward play from players like Rose looked like it would work against England as it gave Norway more space to exploit and they soon showed they were ruthless when given the chance.

Just after the half hour Norway were two up, Håvard Nielsen flicked it the ball over for Jo Inge Berget to chest the ball down and finish well despite the attentions of Steven Caulker. England did have the ball in the back of the net but it was disallowed again, Steven Caulker’s header the latest to be chalked off by the officials.

In the second half, as in the previous game, England made a good start; Connor Wickham was brought on for Lowe, Wilfried Zaha would spend  more time on the wing as everything went a bit 4-4-2. Jordan Henderson brought a save from Nyland, soon after Danny Rose  crossed but Connor Wickham could not get a shot away. Within two minutes Norway would show them the meaning of the word clinical; Norway attacked down the right through Marcus Pedersen, leaving Dawson for dead and cutting back for  Magnus Eikrem to smash it past Jack Butland – the cross bar is probably still shaking.

England finally scored a goal but not from open play, Semb Berge had two arms on Craig Dawson as he went for the ball, a penalty was given and Dawson stepped up score but the comeback never looked possible. Jordan Henderson ‘anticipated contact’ on the edge of the area, was subsequently given a yellow card and the England effort disintegrated into a mess of long balls rash tackles and desperation.

The final whistle ended England’s campaign, but the debates about team selections and the problem with English football is only just beginning you fear.

The cold analysis is not difficult, England came with high hopes and some high profile players who failed to make any real impact when it mattered. In both matches England have been put to the sword by teams with more organisation and purpose who knew how to collectively get the job done.

Man Of The Match:

Eikrem – The midfielder was the engine of everything good for Norway, was effective at stopping England when they managed any spark and was not a letdown in attack either.