England U-19`s reached the semi finals of the European Championships with a last gasp draw against the hosts France and will face Spain for a place in the final.
Much like our seniors, this has been a huge disappointment in terms of quality football from our kids and it took a last kick of the game equaliser and an Austrian win over Holland to give us second place in the group, which seems slightly appropriate considering we have looked second best in all of our three games and can consider ourselves highly fortunate to have picked up 4 pts from three games.
In fairness, Dean Parrett has probably been England`s best player in the games and Steven Caulker has looked the most solid defender, but in truth is has been a very below par display overall from the team.
Perhaps the timing of the event can be blamed for our lack of any real cohesion, as our inability to retain possession and woeful passing has been a major problem throughout. The argument against this, is of course that it is the same for all teams and is it down to lack of preparation time or simply a lack of real quality?
Looking at the England side, I have to say (perhaps I`m being biased) that we would have looked better with a player like Andros Townsend to offer width, which would have relieved Frank Nouble or Nathan Delfouneso from having to play so wide and in turn given us a greater threat in attack, also the creativity of Ryan Mason could have added not only vision, but a calming head in the middle of a side that desperately lacked creativity at times.
Against Spain, I feel we have to consider the other Tottenham player, John Bostock for a starting place. Many Spurs fans were critical of his performance against Austria, but personally I thought he was as good as anyone on the pitch and at least wanted the ball and looked to do something creative. I wonder if fans are simply looking at Bostock and have already made their minds up that he is a little (or lot) too big for his boots? If so he has some serious PR work to do to win over the paying public, before he has even started his top flight career.
The semi final will take place on Tuesday afternoon against a Spanish side who won all three of their group games, so England need to make a major improvement to at least match their runners up spot last season in The Ukraine…
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