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

#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.