Andy Hinchcliffe not shocked by lack of English players in Premier League

Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe says he is not surprised by the low number of English players to feature in the opening games of the Premier League.

Of the 220 players who took to the pitch in the second week of the new season, just 66 were English (30 per cent), compared with 71.1 per cent in the Premier League's first season.

Speaking on Sky Sports News HQ, former England and Everton defender Hinchcliffe said: "If a manager has a choice of a young player between 17 and 21, a choice between an English player and a German, Italian or Spanish player, the managers are picking the continental players because they are not just technically better, but I think their brains are further down the line as well.

"I am not surprised because they’re better, they are simply better."

Since the Premier League’s inception in 1992, the average number of English players is 39 per cent, but just 32 per cent of players have been English so far this term.

I think English players just want the lifestyle rather than the hard work technically and in their heads as well.

Hinchcliffe said: "If I was a manager, and I am not, I think I would do the same thing because given the choice between two players, and one is clearly better than the other, whether he is English or not, you will choose the best player."

The former England international said the problem is a cultural issue that will be difficult to change in this country.

"They have some success early in their careers, maybe the money comes along and the players think 'I have made it and my learning stops now'," he said.

"In Germany, Italy and Spain that’s where it starts, they want to aspire to the previous generation.

"I think English players just want the lifestyle rather than the hard work technically and in their heads as well.

"If you compare the under-18s and under-21s with their continental counterparts, we are way off the mark because the players can’t think for themselves about how to put things right on the field.

“You look at players like (Andres) Iniesta or (David) Silva, they know what football is all about, they know how to do it with their feet, but it is in their heads as well.

"I think the continental players, how they are schooled, educated and taught to play the game is way beyond the English players.

"But I think it is in the English lads' heads more than anything else.

"They need to appreciate how lucky they are and throw themselves into it 24 hours a day and not just think it is when you drive through the training ground gates you are a footballer.

"Everything about your life is about being a footballer and I think on the continent the penny dropped a lot quicker than it has over here."