I doubt it, just from a quick look the last three U20 WC squads there's only been three players capped for the senior side, Jack Butland, James Milner and Martin Kelly, the U20 side is just an overflow U21 side in reality and it is the U21 side that is the more damning indictment of our future.
I thought Barkley looked good in flashes, certainly good on the ball if a little selfish. Larnell Cole looked good in the last game, I don't know why he wasn't playing before. Harry Kane was very wasteful, seems to have a powerful shot on him, but he barely hit the target and looked very slow, I'll be surprised if he reaches the senior squad. Ward-Prowse was underused at CM, I think he's more of an attacking midfielder as his talents weren't really used that well just playing short passes near the back four. He seems to be much better for us as one of the three.
Couldn't believe he took JWP off. He was the only England player with a football brain. The rest were like rabbits in the headlights. When you think about all these nippers constantly showing off their "tekkers"... but in a game, when it matters, not having the ability to pass a ball, cross a ball, shoot straight or show much bottle or intelligence, you realise we focus on the wrong aspects of the game in this country. Do a backflip with the ball stuck under your foreskin? Big ****ing deal. Now, can we focus on how you piss yourself when you get anywhere near the opposition penalty area.
I was surprised by how poor some of our players control was throughout the tournament. At that level the least I would expect is for them to be able to control the football
I was really impressed with Larnell Cole for Man Utd U21s at St Mary's. think he will have a good future in the game. Agree with the opinion that this is u21 left overs and the players are not the cream of the crop from their age group, but you'd expect a basic cohesion. To me Barkley represented everything bad about the England side which CBK illustrated with better humor than I can. If you watched highlights you would say. That Barkley lad has some nice skills, a good turn of pace and looks to make stuff happen. The reality was a wasteful display of trying to take on one too many players and constantly coughing up possession in his quest to score a wonder goal. Frankly this is under 12 stuff and you can see why Everton have barely used him despite his obvious talent. I would make him watch Matt Le Tissiers goals to realize that to score a great goal you only usually have possession of the ball for a few moments before taking a shot.
You see all teams doing the small sided one touch warm-ups before games and I'm sure its also a big staple in all ages of football coaching. They can do it, but they can't do it when there's pressure on them in a real match. Far too much dithering on the ball. I know its in isolation, but after the U21 & U20 performances, are the nippers getting worse, not better?
I was shocked to see the poor ball control in the u20s team. A decent pass to them in a little space and yet, it bounced away to an opposition player almost every time.
I wasn't too impressed by him in the game against Egypt, although I only saw roughly 60 minutes of it. Whenever I saw anyone pass it to him, even a simple ball, he seemed to struggle to control it. He also had a one-on-one with the keeper and managed to completely miss-kick it straight at the keeper.
Good grief, just seen the result. Not winning a single game, didn't win a single game in the U-21 Euros either.... to paraphrase the Offspring: The kids aren't alright.
