England Under-17s still learning says boss Steve Cooper

They may have caught the eye with some of their Croatia Cup scorelines, but England Under-17s head coach Steve Cooper prefers to reflect on the continued learning and development of his squad.

The Young Lions made it three wins from three at the mini tournament on Monday, with an eye-catching 8-1 victory over Germany following similarly impressive victories over hosts Croatia and Greece last week.

And whilst it’s easy to focus on the final result, Cooper was keen to focus on the overall outcome of the trip as he looks to ready his players for their Euro qualifiers in Romania in late October.

"We knew that the three games were going to be three different types of games and playing the host nation in Croatia was an exciting challenge with some local support and an atmosphere for the lads to play in," he said.

"Greece was a new test as we haven’t come across them much before and the way they went about the game was by sitting off and waiting for us to attack, so it was a game we had to be patient in.

"And the Germany match is always important because of the nature of the history and it’s a big fixture at any level.

"I know the result went our way, but they’re a good team as well with some good players.

"We knew that before we came that there would be some tough tests and it proved that way, so whether we won, lost or drew, the result was going to be us learning from the games.

England Under-17s line-up to face Croatia in their first game of the 2016-17 season

"Fortunately on this occasion, the learning has come through some positive results and we have scored a few goals but equally pleasing is the fact that we only conceded one goal.

"That’s good, because it’s only one part of the journey and it’s all about building blocks and getting ready for the next event and joining up the season as a whole - that’s what the Croatia Cup was always going to be about."

As well as the lessons on the pitch, Cooper was also pleased with the way his players dealt with Monday’s disruption as heavy rain meant the original venue for the game in Pula was deemed unfit so the clash with Germany took place on a local training pitch three hours later than initially planned.

And the coaching staff used that as another step in the players’ football education, before they went out to pick up what was a remarkable result.

"We spoke about the disruption, and it’s about treating everything that comes your way as a learning opportunity and that was a challenge we set to the players," explained Cooper. 

"I cited the example of the Under-21s and their game at Barnsley last year when they had to wait in their dressing room because of a delayed kick-off, there’s no excuses so go and get on with it and they did that - we played with a really good intensity, been really positive with plenty of self-belief, very creative and good in possession in all three of the games.

"The lads have been very passionate about their work on the ball and very passionate about winning it back as soon as we haven’t got it and they’ve gone hand-in-hand.

"But we’re not going to get carried away, we’ve done some really good work out here and it’s about increasing our learning and getting ready for the next event in Romania.

"As I keep saying, it’s about reflecting and learning on the things that they’re doing and there’s been a lot of good things this time but we want the next one to be even better and that’s the mentality of this team."

England face Romania, Austria and Azerbaijan in their Euro qualifiers, which take place in late October.