Despite the excellent England performance against Spain the other day, well-done Sven, one really has to pay some attention to the abysmal performance of our Under 21’s. I have been a firm believer in the ability of our country’s youth. However, the performance on Tuesday night has got me a bit worried.
With the likes of Paul Robinson, Seth Johnson, Alan Smith and Gareth Barry being demoted to the Under 21’s from the first team, you really had to believe that England could have beaten the Spaniards. However, this was not the case. With Robinson, himself having had such a strong season with Leeds, making a couple of howling errors. The one most notable was when he decided to come charging out of his goal and flatten his own defender, young John Terry. This resulted in the very impressive Pablo strolling in to slot home his second goal of the night.
However, you can’t just blame Robinson. He was the rearguard to a defence that was totally disorganized and in tatters. The only respite that one can take from the game is that the squad did have the likes of Wes Brown and Rio Ferdinand turning out for the senior side. There were other notable absentees in Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, and former Under 21 captain Frank Lampard, as well as the injured Steven Gerrard. The squad really did seem to be lacking that classy Premiership edge.
You still have to believe that although Spain maybe the number 1 side on the Under 21 circuit, that England could have at least tried to save face and prevent the result from being too embarrassing.
Our country has some very talented youngsters and it is time that we encouraged them to become a very successful international team. It was not so long ago when Peter Taylor had led the Under 21’s to a perfect qualification when they won all their group matches beating the young Italians twice on the way. Since then, however, there have been radical changes made.
With Peter Taylor bizarrely being released and Howard Wilkinson taking over, the Under 21 side have never fully showed the potential that they have. For the nation’s hopes, maybe things will come good soon.