European U21 Championships: Same Old English Deficiencies...

Having watched England's first two games of this summers European Championships, I can see the young lions suffering from the same shortcomings at their senior counterparts.

The lack of a creative presence in the side has been clearly visible with the stale and thoughtless performances put forward by England's best young prospects. Yes before you say it, I know that Jack Wilshire isn't playing, but how can a nation which classes itself as part of the European elite, pin its hopes on a single player. This is not progress as we've all heard this before, there was Paul Gascoigne, then there was Paul Scholes, then David Beckham, followed swiftly by Wayne Rooney and now its Wilshire.

Stats England v Spain

The concept of passing the ball along the ground still seems to be alien to this collection of graduates from from the academies of some of England's finest clubs. Spain had 64.5% of possession when the two sides met recently. I know its lazy to rely on statistics but that is a huge gulf considering that the two sides are many pundits favourites to win the tournament. Even sides such as the Czech Republic, Belarus and Switzerland made up of players plying their trades in leagues considered inferior to the much hyped Premier League seem to be able to grasp this aspect of the game.

Starting Line Up v Ukraine U21

Danny Wellbeck, Danny Rose and Daniel Sturridge the trio of pacey forwards had no support from a midfield of grafters which included new Liverpool man Jordan Henderson, Jack Rodwell and Michael Mancienne. There is no classic "number 10" to supplement the forwards no-one to provide the ammunition for the forwards to fire. Mancienne is a centre half or full back by trade and Rodwell and Henderson are both energetic box to box midfielders neither have the ability to unlock an opposition defence. This line up has similar weaknesses to what we see with the Gerrard, Lampard and Barry axis in the senior first team.

What does the future hold for the young lions? They have the same limitations as recent England sides and if they don't beat the Czech Republic on Sunday they will be on an early flight home. Further to this I think we can all look forward to the same dross we had in South Africa for the next ten years.