3 reasons why England's Under-21 team failed at the European Championship

England’s U21 squad went into the current European Championship with a lot of hope behind them. Aidy Boothroyd’s Young Lions had been on a tremendous run since the 2017 version of the tournament, winning 15 of 20 games and losing just one – a friendly to Germany – and had a strong-looking squad with the likes of James Maddison, Phil Foden, Tammy Abraham and Ryan Sessegnon on offer.

Drawn in a group with France, Romania and Croatia, most fans and pundits alike were expecting England to at least qualify for the semi-finals – but instead, losses in their first two games have condemned them to an early exit, meaning their third game tomorrow against Croatia will be a dead rubber.

So what went wrong for Boothroyd’s team? Quite a lot, actually. Here are 3 reasons why England’s U21 side failed at the European Championship.

#1 Boothroyd’s tactics and selection have to be questioned

Aidy Boothroyd's tactics and team selection must be questioned after this failure

The fact that Aidy Boothroyd has been handed the reins of England’s U21 squad has been a point of contention for some England fans for a long time now; while his reputation as a long-ball merchant is largely a thing of the past these days, it’s an undeniable fact that prior to becoming involved with the national set-up, Boothroyd’s last job in club football saw him fired by League Two side Northampton Town with the club rock bottom of England’s bottom tier.

However, given Gareth Southgate didn’t have a stellar managerial reputation at club level prior to becoming manager of the England senior team, it seemed like keeping faith in Boothroyd was only fair, but after this tournament questions have to be asked about whether he’s the right man for this job.

Both his selections and tactical choices seemed strange in the games against France and Romania. In terms of selection, quite why he chose to leave Tammy Abraham – who scored 25 goals for Aston Villa this season – on the bench for both games is baffling, particularly when Dominic Solanke, who didn’t find the net all season, started against France.

Then there was the issue of Phil Foden, who scored against France and was clearly the outstanding performer in that game. Despite his performance, the Manchester City youngster was shockingly rested for the must-win game against Romania, with Boothroyd apparently fearing a possible injury.

Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson meanwhile wasn’t used at all despite having a tremendous season on loan at Hoffenheim.

Add in Boothroyd’s baffling call to use playmaker Kieran Dowell as a makeshift holding midfielder in the absence of the suspended Hamza Choudhury against Romania rather than simply switch formation and system, and you’ve got to wonder what the former Watford boss was thinking.

Quite frankly, it felt like Boothroyd was treating this tournament more like a series of friendly games, attempting to blood players and try different things rather than play to win. Not only were his choices baffling, but they were hugely disappointing, too.

#2 Individual mistakes cost England again

Fikayo Tomori's error cost England a key goal against Romania

It was a couple of individual mistakes – from John Stones and Ross Barkley – that cost England’s senior team in the UEFA Nations League finals earlier in June as they lost out to the Netherlands in the semi-finals, and equally, it was individual mistakes that cost the U21 team their chance of glory in this tournament, too.

England actually controlled their game against France well for the majority of the game, with goalkeeper Dean Henderson saving a contentious first-half penalty and Phil Foden scoring an excellent goal to put the Young Lions in the lead.

But Hamza Choudhury’s reckless challenge on Jonathan Bamba saw England reduced to 10 men, and despite defending well, they collapsed in the last minutes of the game, with Crystal Palace’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka eventually scoring a thoroughly avoidable own goal to hand France a 2-1 victory.

Against Romania meanwhile, England ended up losing 4-2, but in reality, they had the better of most of the match, and 3 of Romania’s 4 goals were also avoidable and all were caused by more individual errors. Jonjoe Kenny’s late tackle handed the Romanians a penalty, Fikayo Tomori’s weak clearance led directly to Ianis Hagi’s goal, and Florinel Coman’s first goal was caused by a Scott Carson-esque error from Henderson.

Conceding 6 goals in 2 games looks bad by anyone’s standards but when 4 of those goals were easily avoidable, things become a little more frustrating. Like their senior counterparts, England’s U21 players simply made fatal errors when they couldn’t afford to do so. Had they avoided them, the side may well still be in the tournament.

#3 Overconfidence may have played its part

Were England's players - including Dean Henderson - overconfident in this tournament?

Coming into the U21 European Championship, the general consensus was that, along with Spain, Germany and Italy, England were one of the favourites to win the tournament. With a very strong squad including players who had won the U20 and U17 World Cups in 2017 as well as the 2018 Toulon Tournament, it was hardly a stretch to suggest that a semi-final spot should’ve been the minimum goal.

It seemed like England’s players and their manager Aidy Boothroyd bought into this narrative too; Boothroyd outright stated prior to the tournament that he felt like he had a better squad than he took to the same competition in 2017 and that he was hoping to win it, while goalkeeper Dean Henderson – even after the defeats to France and Romania – claimed that he still felt England could beat the eventual winners.

But were England’s players overhyped and overconfident, or was the buzz around them justified? Well, on one hand, the majority of the squad – James Maddison, Fikayo Tomori, Tammy Abraham, Dominic Calvert-Lewin – did enjoy tremendous seasons at club level and probably deserved their status as contenders in Italy.

However, it is true that the English press – and perhaps the players themselves – may have overlooked their opponents, in particular, Romania, as the likes of Ianis Hagi, Florinel Coman and George Puscas might not be too well known in England due to playing for lesser-known clubs, but are clearly massively talented – as Boothroyd’s men found out on Friday.

Hopefully, the Young Lions will take this experience and learn from it – and not go on to make the same hubris-driven mistakes that their predecessors, England’s failed ‘Golden Generation’ of the early-mid 2000s did. Overconfidence is never a good thing, particularly in international football.