Pearce turns on England team after Euro exit

Tel Aviv: Stuart Pearce accused England’s Under-21s team of lacking pride and professionalism as their Euro 2013 campaign ended in shame.

Pearce, whose six-year spell in charge of the side is now effectively over, turned his ire on the dressing room after a dreadful display in a game won by Israel with Ofir Krieff’s 80th-minute goal.

It was a third successive defeat and Pearce’s frustrations bubbled over after England’s worst display at an Under-21 European Championship.

He said: “I honestly don’t believe I should answer questions on behalf of them. They should be answering why performances were so poor.

“I don’t think it’s my responsibility at this stage to answer for a performance as bad as that.

“I’m not coming out here and defending anyone. I’m sick to the back teeth of doing that this tournament. The players have got to deal with that. The standard we have set over a three-year period is a million miles away from what we have shown.

“You don’t expect to stand on the touchline and tell them the same things eight or nine times.

“This doesn’t affect my position. Whether it affects the FA’s position, I don’t know. There are a multitude of reasons why we haven’t performed and I have to take it on the chin.”

While there has been legitimacy to the debate that has been raging about the absence of key players, it should not be used as the definitive reason why this tournament campaign never got beyond being anything but wretched. Even if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck, Phil Jones and Jack Rodwell had been out here, England would not have won Euro 2013, as Spain and Holland have been playing a brand of football about which the nation can only dream. England have just been abject.

Pearce’s limitations have been exposed, as he has failed to get his squad playing with any vibrancy. Smashing long balls up to a centre half in the defeat against Norway was dispiriting.

His players, meanwhile, should not be getting off scot-free. Blame Pearce as much as you like, but shouldn’t there be enough talent to get positive results against Norway and Israel? Too many players looked uninterested and went through the motions. Others gave the impression that they would prefer to be anywhere else.

Silence gripped the dressing room when they reconvened and there is reason to believe there was a lack of harmony. That was evident in the second half, when Israel raised the tempo. Nir Biton hit the bar from 25 yards and Ofer Verta dragged a shot wide before Krieff skipped in to score. England, visibly broken, had no response.

“This is the business end of the tournament and we got what we deserved,” admitted Pearce, who will meet FA Chairman David Bernstein and the Club England board within the next 10 days to learn that his contract will not be renewed.

“I don’t think we deserved to win a game.” They didn’t. England played in red shirts, sporting a shiny new away kit, but finished with crimson faces. The same old miserable deficiencies remain.

— Daily Mail