THE ENTERTAINERS
England U21s urged to put on a show... and upset the odds
ALL it took was one word. Standing on the side of a training pitch, Aidy Boothroyd took a chance to firmly state England’s intentions.
‘To work with a group who can actually entertain you? It doesn’t get any better,’ said the Under 21 head coach. ‘ I think they will entertain everyone.’
It was positive talk, the kind you expect at the beginning of a major tournament, but ahead of today’s opening game with Sweden it had to be taken with caution. Before England can start to be spoken of as potential European champions and entertainers, first they must prove how good they are.
Unlike at the last three finals, voices touting England as potential winners are not plentiful. The reason: the strength in depth of the other leading nations.
Spain, for example, have Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio, Atletico Madrid’s Saul Niguez, Barcelona midfielder Denis Suarez and Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin.
Then there is Germany, who comfortably beat England in a friendly in March and have huge strength in depth, headed by figures such as Schalke’s Max Meyer, Max Arnold of Wolfsburg and Serge Gnabry, Bayern Munich’s new signing, once of Arsenal.
Take a look through other squads and you will see Portugal’s Renato Sanches — who won Euro 2016 last year — and Gianluigi Donnarumma, who is expected to become Italy’s goalkeeper of the next generation. Stars are twinkling all over Poland.
This tournament has been expanded to 12 nations and another change will be the trialling of a rule that allows a fourth substitute to be introduced in extra time, and yellow and red cards can be shown to staff on the bench who overstep the mark.
Of those 12 nations, though, England are one of the most inexperienced in terms of having players who have represented their senior national team. Their total of five caps is only just in front of Denmark’s three. Will inexperience haunt them?
Inevitably, questions must ust be asked about those whoho are not here. John Stoness and Raheem Sterling were eligible, and the Tottenham pair of Dele Alli and Eric Dier began this qualification campaign under Gareth Southgate on a plastic pitch in Norway in September 2015.
Then there is Marcuss Rashford. Would the Mananchester United novice notnot have benefited being here instead of playing out of position in Scotland last Saturday and then not being involved at all in Tuesday’s friendly against France?
Arguments about him burning out don’t add up, either; his tally of 1,701 Premier League minutes last season is lower than that of five of the team set to start against Sweden tonight and less than half of the 3,424 minutes Tammy Abraham accumulated for Bristol City in the Championship.
So you see why it is difficult to gauge what to expect, especially when you factor in that another key man, Chelsea’s Ruben LoftusCheek, did not recover from a back injury in time to be selected.
But, as far as Boothroyd and the FA are concerned, the ones who aren’t here don’t matter. Boothroyd is adamant this group of 23 are good enough to negotiate assignments against Sweden, shock winners in 2015, Slovakia and Poland and head into the latter stages.
‘I’m excited,’ he stressed. ‘I’m not nervous one single bit. This is where you want to be, at the top end of European football. Do we have anything to prove? The first people we have got to prove it to is ourselves.
‘We have had a good qualifying, good preparation. Now it’s about making sure we do our bit. We’re in a good place and just want to get going and put all our game plans into action. We want to entertain. And we want to win.’