BLOG - 2014 European Under-17 Championship: Preview - Part 1
Usually a preview of a major international tournament would focus upon the strengths and weaknesses of the respective teams and while youth football is often decided by a coaches superior tactics, a team's greater physicality or a glaring weakness, the main focus should be on the few talented individuals who will hopefully go on to form those major teams at club and full international level. For some this is their career's pinnacle, while for others the ascent is beginning and often they are to be found in the same team as in the case of the 2002 England side whose number 11, 10, and 9 were Mark Smyth (now of Prestatyn Town), Stacy Long (who spent last season on loan at Eastbourne Borough), and Wayne Rooney (who didn't spend last season on loan at Eastbourne Borough).
It's also worth noting that with competing year groups prior pedigree means nothing, both because quality teams often fail to qualify for the finals while weaker sides progress such is the tenuous connection between quality and results at youth level, and that each countries' year groups obviously differ in talent from one year to another. Last years championships were arguably the lowest ever on quality with all four of this years favourites missing out thanks to a ludicrous elite qualifying round draw where Group 1, competing for a single place at the championships, consisted of Belgium, France, Spain and Croatia, while Group 2 was Austria, Serbia, Republic of Ireland and Georgia, and Group 3 Sweden, Hungary, Belarus and Finland.
So Croatia, Austria and Sweden went through while the three other unlucky Group 1 teams did not, alongside England and Portugal who were in the same group as eventual winners Russia where all three finished with six points so it was decided on their head to head record. With UEFA's logic, they managed to use the elite qualifying round to demonstrate their elite daftness by ruining their own tournament. Fortunately, this year's line up is far more promising.
The Draw
The draw was very balanced for all teams concerned. The four major countries who all have highly regarded year groups in England, Netherlands, Germany and Portugal were evenly divided and will all be hoping to qualify for the semi finals, while the black horses of Switzerland and Scotland have the chance to surprise one of the favourites rather than being placed in a group of death.
The Favourites
Group A
Netherlands
The Dutch '97 year group has long been talked about in the Netherlands and they possess one of the tournament's most creative midfields and highest profile players (and best names) in Marlon Slabbekoorn. The number ten is one of two Dutchmen who competed a year above their age group in the elite stage of qualification last season, with the other, PSV's Kenneth Paal, being kept out of the team in this year's elite round by Slaabekoorn.
Coveted by Manchester City before signing professional terms with Feyenoord, Slabbekoorn is likely to follow in Tonny Vilhenna's steps by making his first team bow the season after competing in the European Under 17 championships. Born in Columbia but adopted by Dutch parents after fleeing violence in his homeland, his mental fortitude is often mentioned in dispatches as is his pace, dribbling, link play and shooting. His interplay with PSV's number 7 Steven Bergwijn will have a large say on the attack's success and they both scored against Sweden in the second elite group match, while Bergwijn got the two decisive goals in the final match decider versus the French. The latter's stocky stance and skilful dribbling is conducive to YouTube highlights but he has shown himself to be effective in important matches and the two of them should make for an exciting watch as they seek to create chances for themselves and PSV striker Dani Van Der Moot, a tall elegant finisher in the classic Dutch mould. The captain is FC Groningen centre back Keziah Veendorp.
The Dutch's weakness is defensive concentration, something which led to them losing 2-0 to England at this year's Algarve tournament (which consisted of the four favourites for these championships) and they will focus on technical football at the cost of winning. Out of the big four they may be the most gifted but tactically naïve with the stress on individuality rather than Germany or Portugal's collective strength.
They have the oddity of their top scorer only playing in two of the six qualification matches as Ajax's Ezra Walian scored five goals as a second half substitute against San Marino in a 12-0 victory in the first qualifying round, which were his only goals as it turned out. Equally oddly they are managed by Maarten Stekelenburg who is no relation to Maarten Stekelenburg of the national team's goalkeeping fame. This Stekelenburg is 42 years old and comes from an Ajax academy coaching background after an undistinguished career in the Dutch lower leagues and is in his first season coaching the U17s. Also look out for assistant Dutch coach Mark Van Bommel.
England
In the paradoxical worlds of men's and junior's football, Premier League clubs boast international stars and junior international sides boast Premier League stars, and while England's youth development is still a matter of fashionable public derision this squad has three players with Premier League experience when the next best countries for first team action are Turkey and Switzerland with one apiece. Add to those three two others who have been on their respective first team's benches and one other substitute who didn't make the squad and as usual in youth development, where everything becomes apparent ten years late, the national consensus is uninformed.
When Wayne Rooney was breaking through, the British public should have been protesting about the shocking state of British talent ID and general disorganisation of coaching. At that time, youth development was often badly funded and left to its own devices with the best practice ignored. The changes of the past decade would take many pages to chart and it is simpler to say not one of this current England side will play for Eastbourne Borough at the age of twenty nine. The Football League will see a number on loan and a few who play for Championship clubs set off from there but the class of 2014 may well prove to be the best squad head coach John Peacock has ever had, including the 2010 winners of Ross Barkley and Nathaniel Chalobah.
Top billing goes to Fulham's Patrick Roberts; a small, perfectly balanced dribbler who deconstructs defences with the ease of the truly gifted, repeatedly finding paths no one else sees with his close control ensuring his next touch will beat the defender, who's certain he can just nick it. Add to that a lovely range of angled passing and a strong shot and you have what Felix Magath within a few weeks of seeing him called an extraordinary talent and he has become a regular part of Fulham's match squads since making his debut against Manchester City in March. It's revealing of this team's strengths the three players with first team debuts are attackers. Shoot-on-sight striker Adam Armstrong was the highest goalscorer in qualification with seven goals in six games and has appeared as a late sub for Newcastle the last few week. He will head up England's 4-2-3-1 with Roberts on the right and Isaiah Brown, who debuted last year for West Brom as a schoolboy before moving to Chelsea, on the left.
At 6'1' Brown is physically dominant in the air and offers a reminder of the old English style when defenders look to find him on the diagonal, though he has a level of subtlety in his passing with a fondness for running infield on his right foot and playing back-spin through balls across his body that makes him a real threat at this level, though his close-quarters dribbling is not as good as when striding into the open plains. Armstrong, his target for many of those passes, offers little in the air at 5'7' and England will look to open the opposition up through the middle with both wingers coming in off the flanks combining through intricate passing, intelligent movement and skilled dribbling. One of the tenets of the new style is positional versatility and the three off the striker can all interchange freely.
Becoming bored of the false 9 playing as more of a 10, England feature a false 10 who is really a 9, all of which is a disservice to Chelsea's Dominic Solanke, who can play in any attacking position (winger, striker, attacking midfielder), but has been doing excellently as a striker for Chelsea's Under-18s, despite being an Under-16 schoolboy. He is the youngest player in the squad, lanky with strong dribbling, inventive interplay, canny movement and always calm inside the box (although too often unthreatening when shooting from outside it). He is the next highest scorer after Armstrong with five in six and completes what may well be the tournament's strongest attack. In fact, it is an attack so strong that head coach John Peacock felt comfortable leaving out Arsenal's Dan Crowley, who has struggled with injury this year after impressing for the Under-17s last season while a year younger than his peers.
High profile omissions are a feature of this squad and absentees include the Liverpool trio of Jordan Rossiter, Sheyi Ojo, and Tom Brewitt, who all played in the first round of qualifiers, while Arsenal's Under-21 regular Ainsley Maitland-Niles has hardly had a look in and left back Max Lowe of Derby misses out through injury.
Captain Ryan Ledson recently made the first team bench for Everton against Southampton and Manchester City after spending the year in the Everton Under-21s. The defensive midfielder is as strong at tackling as he is in possession, organising England's shape and movement with his distribution, while he is also responsible for set-pieces. Most possession movements begin with the full-backs and here the return of Everton's Jonjoe Kenny from injury at right-back may prove vital. In the elite round of qualification, England had to play out through Arsenal's Tafari Moore on the left, despite him being a natural right-back, because Kenny's team-mate Callum Connolly, who he replaces in the squad, was never comfortable in possession at right back. Kenny, who is really a ball-playing centre-back, may well be England's best passer and playing on the right will offer Roberts excellent support meaning teams can no longer press Moore so heavily knowing he is the only outball and forcing the centre-backs to go long to Brown.
The main weaknesses this season have been nerves and slow starts while not taking a high enough percentage of chances when controlling games so the mental aspect could be their undoing. Head coach Peacock was one of the bright lights in the dark times of English youth football, earning the job in 2002 for leading one of England's most progressive academies in Derby County and he is the most experienced Under-17 coach, and the only former winner, at the championships.
Group B
Germany
As has long been noted in national characteristics, the Germans are the opposite of the Dutch, and this is partly true of their respective teams at these championships. Their tactical cohesiveness remains undimmed for all their innovations in youth coaching since 2000 but there is an added spice, often with a Turkish or Albanian flavouring, whilst their movement to provide options in midfield is some of the best at the championships. They were given a bye to the elite qualifiers, despite not qualifying for last year's championships, and they comfortably saw off Ireland 3-0 and Georgia 4-0 either side of the effective group decider against the Serbians, in which they went behind after 10 minutes before coming back in the second half to earn a draw which saw them progress over the Serbs on goal difference. Powerful Hoffenheim striker Phillip Ochs' three goals proved vital.
They showed their strength by winning the Algarve tournament and, along with Portugal and Switzerland, are among the most tactically and mentally advanced teams. They are captained by Bayer Leverkusen central midfielder Benjamin Heindrichs, who is their only player to have played in last season's elite qualifiers, and they possess the calming influence of Schalke's central defender Benedikt Gimber. The flair player is VFB Stuttgart's Arianit Ferati, another student of the recent German school of midge-like left-footed attacking midfielders/versatile wingers who has a big domestic reputation and is expected to make his first team debut come his seventeenth birthday in September.
Coach Christain Wuck had a successful mid-table Bundesliga playing career before coaching the Under-16s last year and moving up with the same age group this one. He is fond of telling how he coaches efficiency and results suggest he does it well.
It's hard to predict form having laid no prior marker in the first round of qualifiers and their elite round group was easier than England's or Holland's, who both came through with maximum points, while Germany could easily have gone out to the Serbs. They did win the Algarve tournament with their strongest side but other countries partly used it to look at fringe players so there is no concrete form guide as to their real strength.
Portugal
Four of this Portugal squad played in last year's elite round qualifiers and form the core of a side of whom twelve of the 18 are Benfica players, a level of club dominance extremely rare for a major country. England coach John Peacock claimed they were the best Portuguese team he's ever faced in his 12 years of regularly competing against them and they will be formidable opponents for whoever they meet as their technicality is equalled by their physicality, work ethic and mental toughness.
Building off a defensively solid base, they possess the most varied attacking options of all the teams enabling them to score every type of goal. Benfica's number 10 Renato Sanches has already earned the praise of a noted former Premier League player (which sounds far more convincing than saying Joey Barton). His appearance and style of play resemble a Brazilian trying to imitate Ronaldinho with his feet and David Luiz with his hair. He's not particularly fast but loves one-on-one duels where he fools defenders with his body movement and manipulation of the ball, giving him the space to shoot or play in an overlapping full-back. He's required to work hard for the team and in big games it's not unusual to see him and Sporting striker Alexandre Silva behind the ball harrying midfielders. The latter is pacy, strong, has a prodigious backside, is excellent in the air, with neat ball control and it's his attributes which mean Portugal's favourite form of attack is down the flanks. Sanches will often drift out to the left to send in in-swingers and it's an effective strategy at this level and something England struggled with both times they met this season, where three of the five goals they conceded came from crosses.
With the skill of Sanches and the physicality of Silva they have the luxury of choosing from three very talented widemen in Diogo Goncalves, Luis Mata and Buta, who are all right-footed modern wingers, with their first thought being to shoot rather than cross. Delivering from wide is often left to overlapping full-backs Hugo Santos and Yuri Ribeiro. While they are probably the best counter-attacking team at the championships, it's not uncommon for opponents to feel they've played well against them and not got the result they deserved.
The centre-back Ruben Dias played in last year's qualifiers and is protected by fellow second year stager Ruben Neves of Porto, who captains the team and is their biggest hope. He works hard off the ball, has a lovely range of passing, dribbles strongly and adds the final attacking threat with the consistent accuracy of his long range shooting. They're tough, pragmatic, skilful and it's just a shame the final game of the group stage pits them against Germany because by then one or both could well be qualified spoiling what promises otherwise to be an interesting match.
Out of the favourites, Portugal had the easiest elite round as they hit a treble of trebles with 3-0 wins against Latvia, Ukraine and Iceland in which the opposition goalkeepers (particularly the Ukrainian's) were highly generous and the defences more so. Their contests with fellow heavyweights in friendly tournaments has proven their qualities though.
Emilio Peixe is in his second year as coach and has clearly got the players working for him, aided by so many of them growing up together at Benfica, and then adding in the talents of Silva and Neves. He won twelve caps for Portugal after coming through the Sporting academy with Luis Figo and won the best player award at the 1991 Under-20 World cup, which is a good warning about the precariousness of predicting greatness on tournament form.
With thanks to Samuel King, who you can also find on twitter @KingSRV
Coming soon: Part 2 of our preview to the tournament, including the underdogs, black horses, haggises and hosts
