Football: England's National Side Has A Flat Track Bully Problem.

Kane had limited service and impact in Italy's simple 3-1 win at the
Under 21 European Championship.

'Never getting my hopes up again. Could barely have been better coming into the tournament and now this. Sod it all. I am officially a converted England cynic.'

Me

Sorry. Watching England's Under 21 side go down 3-1 to Italy's Under 21's in a game England had to win was a harder, more depressing watch then maybe it should have been. Two years of steady pass and move progress including wins against Germany and Portugal in the build up to the European Under 21 Championships yes, but England's bottom of the group placing shouldn't have been a surprise. It's tradition, many would say; England have not defeated their expectations for what feels like a fairly long time. 



It's important to gather some perspective first though. The Championship is a tournament of eight teams; eight teams who had to qualify at the top of their groups or be one of the better second placed teams. They were then put into a pot and drawn against each other to further whittle down Europes cream of the crop. Spain went out in the playoffs. France were knocked out in the playoffs. 

Danny Ings missed a huge early opportunity; one that proved
pivotal in England's early exit.

Sweden and Portugal have now made the final, the former of whom England defeated 1-0 after having to spend eighty minutes breaking them down, and the latter whom England lost out to in a tight game. Portugal just slaughtered Germany's Under 21's in the semi final incidentally, smashing five goals past a team with a Champions League winning goalkeeper in goal. It's not so simple as England failed. The tournament is a difficult one. Did Southgate lose his nerve, his belief in the systems that had brought England to the tournament? Did the loss of Berahino and Stones also deprive England of a small, vital edge? If Ings had scored his excellent chance in the minutes before Italy scored, would England now be looking at a place in the final of the competition? 

We could go on about the whats, ifs and buts forever. The simple fact is that again England have built up a train of progress and hype, gone into the tournament as a side with belief and hope behind it, and then fallen short of those expectations. The defending for two of Italy's goals was horrible, deflection or no. The midfield had a limited effect on proceedings creatively or even defensively; Berardi, Italy's young hope, had all the freedom he needed to put a perfect cross onto Belotti's foot, and the Italian midfielders walked through the middle of the park for a deflected second minutes later that England could not recover from. The final goal, a slow cross slowly headed in past a slow England defence, was the rotten icing on the stale cake; and all this with players like Hughes, Dier and Ward-Prowse on the sidelines. It felt like a year and a half of progress had climaxed in this limp, uninspired performance in the depths of the Czech Republic, as if in footballing terms there had been no progress at all. 

A selection of Englands best and brightest, or doomed
souls depending on how you look at it. 

That's not entirely true, of course it isn't. Since Barcelona and Guardiola combined to take over the footballing world everyone else has been playing catch up; especially England, who have lacked the type of creative players required in midfield and out on the wings, suddenly have players like Sterling, Wilshere, Barkley, Hughes and Ward-Prowse coming through. The defenders are changing, with Dier and John Stones being two great prospects, even if Stones is liable to errors and overplaying. English football under Hodgson is controlled, balanced, and cruising their group stage without dropping a point; even the likes of Spain and Germany have stumbled against minnows in their groups.

Equally there will always be the nagging fear with England that they are flat track bullies; that they will stomp the minnow opposition in these group stages and give off the idea of progress right up until it really, sodding matters. And then draw with Algeria, lose 4-0 to Germany, give up easy goals to Italy in the under 21s. The fear that England will blow it when it really matters pervades English football; covers it in a negative haze. And until our national sides can step up from that flat track bully position and really step up in the big games, I will remain a newly initiated member of the England cynics brigade. I'll probably still end up disappointed, sick to the stomach. But at least I'll be numb to it.