Aidy Boothroyd believes his squad for the U21 Euro Finals has more than enough quality and big-game experience to make an impression in Poland this summer.
The Young Lions boss selected his 23-man squad for the competition on Monday morning, having spent the last three weeks working with the players at St. George’s Park in preparation.
And with six members of his group having already experienced the Finals in previous years, Boothroyd believes that know-how and determination to go further this time will transmit itself through the rest of the squad.
“We’ve got a couple of guys who already know what the Euros are going to be like and see themselves as having a little bit of unfinished business there,” revealed Boothroyd, after announcing his final squad.
“I think that in itself is a really good motivation for them and that can spread through to the rest of the squad who are going for the first time.
“It’ll be a brilliant experience for them and a big part of their tool-kit going forward as players, but just that integration in getting them ready is going to be a big thing for us.
“Every tournament brings its different challenges for all of the teams there, with players having injuries at the end of their seasons and coaches looking to energise the players to go one more time.”
Unfortunately for Boothroyd, injury means the squad will be without Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek who has been a regular throughout the qualifying campaign and another player with experience of the last competition in Czech Republic two years ago.
But the head coach believes there’s more than enough quality in his group and Loftus-Cheek’s absence opens up a chance for other players in the squad.
“Ruben’s been up with us and spent some time at St. George’s Park, he loves coming away with England and he’s devastated at missing out,” revealed Boothroyd, who took over as U21s boss after Gareth Southgate took on the senior manager’s role last October.
“But he’s had an ongoing issue which has been managed and it was thought best that for his progress individually, it was important that he had a rest this time and didn’t come with us. We’re working hard with Chelsea and with him to get him back fit as soon as possible.
“We’re disappointed as well because he is a good player and a key player for us, but as he said to me, he’s looking forward to getting himself fit and coming back ready for our next campaign and that first qualifier against the Dutch in September.
“It’s unfortunate, but it means we can re-shuffle and we’ve got very able players in John Swift, Jack Grealish and Lewis Baker, who has had a phenomenal season, who can go into that number ten role and go and create and score goals for us.”
Also missing out on the trip is another Chelsea youngster Izzy Brown and Manchester City forward Patrick Roberts, who both reported to last week’s training camp at St. George’s Park following successful campaigns on loan at Huddersfield Town and Celtic respectively.
Like Loftus-Cheek, they will sit out this competition with a view to being fully fit for the new campaign and trying to reach the next Euro Finals in Italy in 2019.
“They’ve played pretty much every game for their clubs over the last three or four months and been carrying injuries to get through,” added Boothroyd.
“So unfortunately, it’s a bridge too far for them and they were unable to make it as well.
“That’s the nature of things though, we have so many squads out at big tournaments this summer and it’s been an unprecedented year of England teams qualifying for Finals so we have been stretched a little bit thin in that respect.”
Boothroyd’s squad will meet up again at St. George’s Park on Wednesday before they travel to their base in Kielce next week.
