ENGLAND’S

Under 21 team did reasonably well to reach the semi-finals of the European Championship, but let’s not go overboard about the reinvention of coach Aidy Boothroyd. Having earned a reputation in club football for playing a direct style, Boothroyd was said to have proved his critics wrong with the way his team performed in the tournament in Poland. Hardly. England often went long and were technical inferiors against Germany, who deserved to have the semi-final won well before it went to penalties. And how low have our expectations fallen that Boothroyd receives praise just for not being a long-ball merchant? Is he really the best coach for the Under 21s? Could a sharper, more innovative thinker not get more out of those players? There is more to coaching age-group teams than telling them ‘don’t hoof it’. If this really is all we demand from our Under 21 manager, it would be hard to set the bar much lower.