UEFA EURO U21 Championships

lol once england get the ball they dont know what to do with it

@ Debbie

MacEachran played for the under 19s team that finished level with Spain but was knocked out on goal difference

Strange subs

Welbeck left on the pitch, when he's done nothing and trying to get himself sent off

Lansbury rather than Albrighton

they lack in the centre midfield simply quality, martinez looks like a real deal in this position

Spain try to pass the ball into the net. Nice move though.

Parejo for Adrian,

The thing that impresses / annoys me about Spain is how physically "niggly" they are, buzzing around, not afraid to pull of some very cynical challenges.

Very Barcelona-esque in this way.

In the past, they were a relatively lightweight team, despite renowned hardmen defenders a la Hierro. Not anymore.

Almost as important as their ability on the ball.

Noah und der Bale wrote:The thing that impresses / annoys me about Spain is how physically "niggly" they are, buzzing around, not afraid to pull of some very cynical challenges.

Very Barcelona-esque in this way.

In the past, they were a relatively lightweight team, despite renowned hardmen defenders a la Hierro. Not anymore.

Almost as important as their ability on the ball.

As I've said numerous times, that's the most difficult thing to overcome when playing Barca / Spain. You need players who are comfortable on the ball and can hold on to it / don't lose possession easily when put under pressure. This 'hornet swarm' pressing has given them the edge indeed.

Bojan for Jeffren

Sinclair for Cleverly

England look tired. Spain are just too good, especially when they don't have to chase the game.

We've still got a long way to reform youth level to match these guys.

Not all bad though, some goodish performances - Kyle Walker looks like the makings of a very good player. And he ours

Better team selection for the next games should improve things as well, Pearce's team selection very odd.

Expect us to improve. Losing to Spain is no humiliation at any level.

Capel for Herrera

Wellbeck equalises! Nice move, 3 minutes to go.

1-1

lol good for england, it will hide the problems again

Welbeck

I never suggested he should be subbed

Equaliser for England. Welbeck scores after good play from Walker. It looked like he might have been offside, in which case it would even up Spain's contentious goal. Spain haven't really created the clear chances that they should have done considering their obvious superiority in this match.

Spain lack the cutting edge. Looks good often until the final pass, which is missing more often than not. Look a bit toothless up front.

1-1 FT

Fair result actually. Spain may have been the slightly better team, but failed to create clear cut chances. England took advantage of some confusion in the Spanish defence and equalised.

Both will need to improve if they want to win the tournament.

A lucky goal. But Spain haven't created clear cut chances either. Most English players (save Smalling) seem woeful though..

Didac fuck, not in the same league as angel yet he starts at LB, never liked Milla's approach since his days with the U-19's always leave a couple of his best players on the bench, start the best possible team for goodness sake

Both teams there could learn a bit from each other - England need to learn to be more patient with the ball at times, Spain need to learn to be a bit more direct sometimes in final third. It rather lacks ambition when you barely try for a 2nd goal with the amount of possession they had. Perhaps they are too used to seeing senior team hold out for boring 1-0s and forgot that if you make one mistake or opponent gets one lucky break, it can cost ya.

Germany should take note that when you go 1-0 down to Spain, the key thing is to score a goal before the end of the match otherwise you lose

blutgraetsche wrote:Spain lack the cutting edge. Looks good often until the final pass, which is missing more often than not. Look a bit toothless up front.

Exactly, the problem was the lack of a proper striker. No idea why the coach took off Adrian and didn't send Bojan on till much later. And where was Muniain?

debaser wrote:
Germany should take note that when you go 1-0 down to Spain, the key thing is to score a goal before the end of the match otherwise you lose

'Learning' from this English team means regressing.

Besides, I don't know if you missed it, you surely must have, but Spain has actually been beaten on the youth level by Germany when their youth sides won the 'treble' (U17, U19 and U21 Euros). You know, that shiny silverish thing called silver ware?

fcb wrote:
Exactly, the problem was the lack of a proper striker. No idea why the coach took off Adrian and didn't send Bojan on till much later. And where was Muniain?

Bojan actually had one killer pass at the end of the match that could have won Spain the game if Mata had controlled the ball better.

It's early days though. As I've said, Spain tend to start slow in tournaments, at least that has been my impression in the last few years watching them on the youth level.

Kroos wrote:lol good for england, it will hide the problems again

Well, I can't see why a well worked goal should be criticised.

But if you're even interested - the "problems" are well known and there are big changes afoot, 3 main changes coming into force over the next year or so:

1) Centre of Excellent at Burton on Trent, so that all youth teams in England and coaches follow same model all way up to senior level
2) Removal of the catchment area rules for clubs, so the best youngsters can sign and train with the club of their choice as opposed to their local side
3) All youth teams to play 4,5 and 6 aside only until the age of 15

Whether these work will remain to be seen, but English youth football is hardly in the doldrums - our u17 side are Euro Champs, our U21 side has qualified for the last 3 finals in a row (nr 1 ranked team in Europe), finishing the last 2 Euros as semi finalists (losing on pens) and finalists, so there are improvements being made. This side has been shorned of it's best players, and despite not playing particularly well against the quality of Spain they showed some glimpses including a decent goal.

I'm not a subscriber to the notion that the English National team is in crisis, of course there is a long way to go to match Spain, but it's not a hopeless position.

how many players from this u21 final teams made an huge impact in your a- team or in your league?

the biggest problem is the midfield area, i think england can produce great fullbacks and centrebacks, but in midfield i see only wilshire which can match up, hes a great package, he looks very comfortable on the ball, has a great engine

the biggest problem of english football is producing midfielders with brain and vision, wingers with the ability to see situations, instead of headless crossing

so you where lucky to find such a player in wilshire (maybe your scholes of this decade ) with a good youth work you would find more of these players (maybe mceachran)

and it will take some time until new rules will change your youth setup

Smalling was the only player for England that did not look out of place. Walker gave the ball away to much none the less we got a point and Spain have themselves to blame. No top sides have gone back and tried man for man marking against this ticky tacky football. Every spanish player is given to much space with zonal marking, even if they might beat the player 90 minutes of man on man would increase the chances of them losing their passing patterns and weaken there game play.

Czechs lead the group

is pearce the dumbest coach on planet, ME THINKS yes

"If we had kept the ball away from the Spanish team for that period of time over 90 minutes, we'd have maybe won the game 4-0," he said.


doesnt he realize that england dont has the technical ability and education for this