Les Reed has said England’s under-21 players at the European Championship in June displayed an overconfidence that bordered on arrogance and has emphasised that they must learn lessons from the tournament disappointment.
The Football Association’s technical director, who was appointed last December to succeed Dan Ashworth, embedded himself with Aidy Boothroyd’s squad, which featured a host of emerging stars including James Maddison, Mason Mount and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Gareth Southgate called all three players up for the home Euro 2020 qualifiers against Bulgaria on Saturday and Kosovo next Tuesday, although Wan‑Bissaka has since withdrawn because of injury.
Boothroyd’s under-21s crashed out of the championship in Italy and San Marino at the group stage after losing to France and Romania and then drawing with Croatia, and Reed echoed criticisms made by Southgate last week about the collective attitude of the players.
“That year is a tough year group, particularly when half of them had already won a World Cup [at under‑20 level in 2017] and then a number of them were starting to become household names and getting Premier League appearances and being talked up,” Reed said. “Inevitably when that happens they get into the realms of talking about new contracts and negotiations at their clubs.
“When you want to win tournaments, you need to be confident. You need to have a bit of a swagger. But it doesn’t need to border on arrogance and I think getting that balance right … I didn’t think we achieved that completely. It was probably over-confidence. It was a mental thing in believing they were going to win the tournament and probably being overconfident and then actually realising in gameplay that there is another team out there and it’s not a walkover. A lot of the goals conceded were individual errors; a loss of concentration. But it [arrogance] contributed to errors in judgment on the pitch.”
Boothroyd had been given a new contract before the tournament and, after it, Reed decided that he deserved the opportunity to continue in the role. Reed said Boothroyd’s new deal was in train before he returned to the FA and that to take it away before the tournament would have been counterproductive in terms of motivation.
“What is more important is that we accept it wasn’t an acceptable performance from the squad and why,” Reed said. “Was it Aidy? No it wasn’t. It was a number of things that collaborate to end up with that and they are things we need to identify so we can put them right.
“We had a lot of feedback from the boys. They hanged themselves out and said they underperformed. It wasn’t Aidy. The question now is what you’re going to do about it individually. The other side of it is that two or three of them are now in Gareth’s thoughts. It’s about turning what were negatives into positives.”
Reed namechecked Mount and suggested that the decision of his club, Chelsea, to trust more in English academy products this season – partly as a result of their transfer ban – might open the eyes of other clubs. Frank Lampard, the Chelsea manager, has also selected Tammy Abraham, another young English talent.
“It’s not because Chelsea haven’t got the money to spend. They can’t spend it but they’ve introduced two or three players who have held their own,” Reed said.
“Those kind of things will change the mindset. Hopefully it gets a bit of impetus and more and more will get that opportunity.
“We’ve got a number now leading the way in getting in the top six teams and showing they can do it. It’s turning, although there’s a long way to go to make that upward movement consistent. The combination of interest from abroad [in English players] and one or two making headway at the top end of the English game will open the door for a lot more.”
