"England & FA blame culture shows head again"

Following England's elimination from the 2013 UEFA under 21 championship at the group stages for the second time in a row there has been the usual fall out from media, pundits, fans and former professionals. Some have blamed the crop of foreign players in the premiership as the reason, some have blamed the attitude of the under 21 players, some (myself included) have pointed figure at the manager, some have even blamed the attitudes of the FA for not forcing mainstays of the national team into the under 21 tournament.

As usual instead of taking a step back and analysing the short comings of our football as a nation we have done the quick fire point finger blame game routine. With this article I hope to put some things into focus.

England topped their qualifying group with an almost flawless record. One loss out of 8. 24 goals scored and 3 goals conceded.

2013 UEFA Under 21 Qualification Table

 Averaging 3 goals a game and with a +15 goal difference over our nearest rival. Not all doom and gloom there is there? So why the failure at the tournament? The general consensus has been that we have missed key players who are unavailable or those who are now plying their trade in the full national team and these players should have been brought back to further their development.

Having tracked England's under 21 progress for a long time I found this view to be a bit odd considering that England were only missing Oxlade Chamberlain and Jack Rodwell from their full tournament squad compared to the one that qualified for the Tournament with relative ease. The starting line ups are all freely available be seen. Would these two players suddenly changed England from a long ball team into a passing slick tika taka style nation? Oxlade Chamberlain by his own personal admission has not had the season many expected and in fact he has found himself on the fringes of the Arsenal first team this season. Jack Rodwell can even say the same about himself. Frozen out of the Man City team following a high profile move and a number of injuries but with a string of appearances towards the end of the season it looked like he may have a part to play. However to say these would have made a huge impact to the lack of technical ability England showcased in Israel is a cop out.

The second argument is that the likes of Jack Wilshere/Phil Jones/Danny Welbeck should have all been playing in this tournament in order to further their development. Now I personally don't see how regulars for the national team (a national team that was derided for not embracing youth or willing to freshen up the squad) should have to take this step back to help out an England Under 21 team. If they are mainstays of the full team, and all likely to grace many a full tournament should England qualify, what benefit will it have on their development to play in an underage tournament? These players play at the highest levels in club terms and quite frankly they don't know how to adapt to tournament football from playing in the Champions League with Manchester United and Arsenal respectfully what hope have England got?

There is also the Pearce factor, while I am not his biggest fan he does deserve credit for his outstanding contribution to England Under 21 team and his overall record at qualification and even his record in his first and second tournament. However the way he has conducted himself throughout the last couple of years has been downright poor from a great servant. To constantly demand players make themselves available for u21 duty to even going as far as blaming individual players for shortcomings is nothing short of cowardice. Yes I am sure a team with Wilshere/Welbeck/Walker/Jones would have helped the team play better but to pin abject performances on key players is a stretch. Premier league managers would not dare come out after a loss and say well you gotta look at my team, if I had 5-6 better players in my team and not these boys we wouldn't have lost. Not only does it create a negative effect on morale but you lose respect of your team. You did so well to qualify with them why not say this wasn't us today but we will work on it and come back stronger. Then after another abysmal performance against Israel completely change your blame target and point a finger at the ones who are here. Sadly it seems like Pearce's time is up. No win in 6 tournament games should settle it. Fresh mind needs to come in, get a real identity of how England should be playing. Whether this be Glenn Hoddle, Phil Neville or some foreign nation youth academy coach so be it. Let's get englands second string playing possession football with penetration.

Finally the less heralded view is that simply put our youngsters are no where good enough to be challenging for a tournament. While this view can be quite extreme after watching the three games closely I have to side with this argument. I don't think a single player can possibly come out of that tournament with a raised price tag or an enhanced reputation. Wilfred Zaha has had a long season following play off exertions but to say he is the next big thing in English football is absurd. At the moment he is a raw player. Full of power, pace and close control but unable to effectively combine these on a regular basis to consistently terrorise defenders. Hopefully under Moyes and United staff they will get him focused on turn those raw skills into talent. Tom Ince was also meant to shine brightly but did nothing to suggest he is one of the best prospects in the championship. Connor Wickham clearly has so much to learn before he show the promise that gave him the coveted best player following England's Under 17 triumph in 2010. No player showed that had that X-factor to excite a crowd, make that clever pass to unlock a defence or show that determination to drive past their opposite number. Is that down to confidence or is it down to ability? After watching Group B's matches with the exciting dynamic talents of Isco, Holtby, Wijnaldum, Hermann it is hard to disagree that there isn't a clear gap in ability that you can't just learn from playing more games at a higher level.

So who is to blame for another tournament of failure? To the players who had a great chance to show they could break into the first team, you are to blame. To the players who aren't available to play at this tournament. You could have and maybe should have made a difference but to associate blame when they are not there is foolish. To the manager who has failed to improve from their last tournament. You clearly lack an overall idea of a style of play you want to implement. A defender is not a striker with 20 mins to go. You have played a goal keeper as a striker before, you have a lot to learn and are to blame. To the FA who don't make the first steps and implement a coach who wants to get us playing football correctly no matter the result. Don't allow yourself to be blamed.