http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...20-2-Winless-Young-Lions-limp-tournament.html Beaten 2-0 by Egypt. The worrying thing in that article- England have now gone 16 matches without a win at this level and a summer that promised so much will instead trigger another bout of navel-gazing. Taylor acknowledged tonight's display was the worst of his reign, and rued the missed opportunities. 'I thought we would win tonight, to be honest, because I thought we were improving as a team,' he said. As a footballing nation we are going to be seriously ****ed - soon!!
I'd be more worried by our lamentable showing in the U21 Euros in Israel.. Personally,I think the current generation of young players,probably from the ages of 15 upwards,are a write-off.We need to get the coaching skills that hopefully the development at St George's park will provide to target the 7,8,9 year olds and teach them the technique,skills and attitude needed to compete with the rest of the continent,and the world.Our players can't keep possession for more than a couple of passes,and spend a fair portion of the game chasing the opposition for the ball... Spain,for example,get their national youth teams to all play the same as their senior side.Also,the Spanish FA place great importance on the likes of the Under-20 WC,U-21 Euros etc etc...our FA?...no,we'll take 2 or 3 of our best U21 players for a pointless friendly in Brazil and expect Stuart Pearce to struggle on in Israel. There doesn't seem to be the pride in wearing an England shirt anymore.The U21's moaned about having to play a tournament at season's end.."we wish we was on the beach".The attitude stinks...it should be the pinnacle of a players' career to play for your country,but I get the impression some are blaise about it. If we follow the likes of the Dutch,Spanish and French and get our kids to develop proper technical skill,play small-sided games on small pitches,play Futsal like the Brazilians do,then we have a chance..but it'll take a good decade at least before we see results. All is not lost,but we need an attitude change from the FA and some hard work in Burton to see progress.
Thats a great post. Contrast Steven Gerrards attitude- I'll have the operation before Englands tour of Brazil so i'm fit for Pool and the full Spanish team still out there playing for their country and its the first of July tomorrow.
Peter Taylor was a backwards step being appointed to that role. Not that anyone could have had much impact in such a short period of time, but for the long term gain a manager with more a more modern thought on the game would have been my preference
To be fair we don't take young tournaments seriously? Would Harry Kane really get into England's best under 20's side not a chance in hell. Also the under 21s was by far weakened by players not going who could of gone and had no reason not to, so its impossible to compare both those sides to sides of other nations who put their best teams out. If you put Smalling and Jones in our defence with The Ox and Welbeck upfront i bet we would of done well at Under 21s, but we didn't.
