I mean, there's loads to go on with this group aside from today's game. They don't just appear from nowhere for International breaks.
really hate U19 with 3 games only. Why is U19 the only tourney with 8 teams? U17 Euro has 16 teams U19 Euro has 8 teams U21 Euro has 12 teams......but expanded to 16 teams starting in 2021. I mean its 16 teams everywhere but U19, you screw up 1 game and your at huge risk of missing out.
I think Uefa don't really want it to be good, they kinda know it's a waste of time and they just don't want the extra fixtures. So rare that there's ever even a good field of teams, especially when the host is usually a smaller country.
Losing two games out of five with the players available is a pretty awful record. It just hasn’t seemed to work out. We have lacked a clinical edge all campaign and conceded goals in four consecutive games now from few chances. Sometimes you can feel unfortunate at this level because of the format but we deserve eliminating.
I'm not overreacting to the result when I say this because most of you know I've said it before, but the quality of England coaching from U19-21 is increasingly inferior to that from U15-17. The younger groups have remained fresh and kept with the times; the older ones haven't, and they desperately need to change that in the next year.
I think we should clean house, mainly cause them age groups in particular should be seen as an opportunity for ambitious coaches. We struggle to get our best young coaches up the pathway, why not let them take some of the most talented players in Europe for a couple of cycles, try to build a rep, then move them on. Shouldn’t be a place where older coaches just settle. Even if we were to win everything in them ages this year, you should move them up. With the U18 coach prepping to step up to the U19s and the U20 to be the U21 coach. Even if he was a good coach, what would be the benefit in giving Boothroyd yet another Toulon + another U21 Euros after this summer? Our U21 manager should always be someone that the FA are trying to push into a top job, be it ours or a club side. Not just a guy happy to keep going. It’s an incredible opportunity to expose as many coaches as possible to.
They shouldn’t have made it so important for managerial experience to be required for getting the U21 job. That is why Boothroyd got the job in the first place and likely put off others from applying. The whole approach to appointments at the upper age groups mean we will have the same issues regardless unless they are changed. It’s a real shame because it was pretty obvious what was required when Pearce left and everything could have been overhauled then.
Does anyone really believe our FA would or could change their approach when hiring coaching staff considering they just appointed an old timer in Les Reed as technical director and I doubt he has the vision either to want to freshen things up in the coaching department. Just on this group, I find it quite puzzling that someone like Rakeem Harper has so far only played one minute in these Elite games considering he’s been quite impressive when I’ve seen him playing for WBA.
Well, Czechs are currently beating Denmark 2-1 so I think that’s good for us in terms of eliminating Denmark if we beat them next. We just need Greece dropping points against the Czechs. I think that’s pretty much how it works.
I didn’t listen to the game on the radio as was busy but from the stats, it would suggest converting chances seemed an issue today. We had 18 attempts on goal with just the one goal scored which was a penalty. Greece had 6 and scored 2. Maybe someone else listened to the game who maybe have a better opinion on the game?
Disappointing to go out at this stage given the obvious talents of the squad, although they've not been particularly impressive throughout the qualifiers. I'm also disappointed to see the same midfield 3 played given only 2 days rest and given the depth of the squad....there's really no reason Nmecha, Harper, McEachran couldn't have started....seem almost negligent. In general at these levels use of the squad is generally quite poor....Gallagher seems to start come what may for example yet Skipp doesn't even make squads. Still if we're going to miss a tournament, might as well make it the under 19's considering a bunch of the squad would likely be unavailable even if we make it.
On the basis of the radio commentary we dominated from start to finish but couldn't finish, they defended very stubbornly and took every half opportunity.
That's not quite true. The radio commentary were pretty clear in saying England huffed and puffed for 20 minutes in the first half, first 10 of the 2nd and then the final 10, but didn't really create that many chances. When Greece scored their first, they were saying how it was just about a deserved lead.
Changes; Aarons in at RB, Lamptey up onto the wing. Harper and McEachran into the midfield with Gibbs-White.
Could mean nothing, could mean everything, but I do think it's odd that Nmecha hasn't started a game.