Lots of things wrong with England U21s which show me that we are well behind other countries in player development
1, Our "stars" think they have made it too soon, Whiltshire and Carroll are away on holiday and obvioulsy think they are too big for U21s and dont want to "burn out". Really? Where were they last summer? Not at the world cup thats for sure, however Mata and the other Spanish lad (Martinez I think) where with the Spainsh world cup squad last summer, played a full season, and still turn out for U21s.
2, We cannot keep the ball. Even with 3 in CM against a "lesser" side we lost possession, when we did have possession the were a couple of passes, then hoofed up field. $-3-3 works by keeping possession with short passes
3, We cant play other formations, last night was 4-3-3, yet the CMs didnt dominate, they didnt pass and move, and when they did break forward to support the attack no one covered the defence. The full backs never pushed on, which is what you need to get width, the wing forwards didnt drag defenders into channels or offer themselves up for passes, look at how top wing forwards do this, Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Suarez, Anelka ect, the drag defenders out of position, show for the ball, then when out of possession work at getting the ball back and close down.
All in all very very poor