Boothroyd battles to save job as cautious Under-21s fall to opening defeat
European U21 Championship
Aidy Boothroyd has five days to save his job and prove he is the coach to take England Under-21s forward.
Boothroyd, who is out of contract in the summer, faced questions over his future ahead of the European Championship in Hungary and Slovenia and will be under increased scrutiny after this morale-draining defeat at Stadion Bonifika, Koper.
Like many of England Under-21 teams before them, Boothroyd’s froze once the tournament finals started, belying their form in qualification and the attacking talent in their squad. Their only shot on target was a long-range free-kick from Callum Hudson-odoi while Dan Ndoye’s looping effort 13 minutes from the end proved to be the winner.
It concerned Boothroyd that his players enjoyed two-thirds of possession yet barely laid a glove on Switzerland. “We played a safe game and were cautious. If you want to win you cannot play safe,” he said. “You have to risk the ball at the right time in the right areas. I didn’t think we did that.
“It does concern me. But this is the biggest test and you have to go through adversity to come out the other side. I can’t deny that high percentage of possession is not enough and we have to be more clinical in the final third.”
England’s dressing room was downbeat before the players headed back to their base on the outskirts of
Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. Boothroyd has little time to change their mentality and prepare to attack Portugal on Sunday, which would give them a chance of progressing against Croatia three days later. After failing to get out of their group two years ago, Boothroyd cannot afford another defeat.
“We didn’t make their back line work enough,” he said. “Next game we’ll go with an attacking formation. It’s adversity and we intend to come out of it.”
England (3-4-3) Ramsdale 6; Godfrey 5, Guehi 5, Kelly 5; Aarons 5, Davies 4 (Jones 66), Skipp 5, Mcneil 5 (R Sessegnon 76); Hudson-odoi 5, Nketiah 5 (Brewster 76), Smith-rowe 5 (Eze 66). Subs Bursik (g), Griffiths (g), Cantwell, Gallagher, Wilmot, S Sessegnon, Tanganga, Madueke.
Switzerland (4-4-2) Racioppi 6; Lotomba 6, Bamert 6, Zesiger 7, Muheim 6; Toma 7 (Ruegg 85), Domgjoni 7, Jankewitz 6, Ndoye 7 (Mambimbi 79); Guillemenot 6 (Imeri 66), Zeqiri 7. Subs Kohn (g), Fayulu (g), Van Der Werff, Sidler, Pusic, Rieder, Stergiou, Sohm, Stojilkovic. Referee Giorgi Kruashvili (Georgia).