Friday 6 September 2019 09:19, UK
FA technical director Les Reed has blamed "arrogance" from some players as a reason for the England U21s' premature exit from their 2019 European Championship campaign.
Aidy Boothroyd's side went out of the competition at the group stage following a 2-1 loss against France and a 4-2 defeat to Romania.
Reed told reporters: "You need to have a bit of a swagger, but it doesn't need to border on arrogance."
"That year group is a tough year group, particularly when half of them had already won a World Cup and then a number of them were starting to become household names and getting Premier League appearances. And being talked up.
"Inevitably when that happens they get into talking about new contracts and negotiations. I think it was over-confidence.
"It was a mental thing in believing they were going to win the tournament and being over-confident, and then actually realising in gameplay that there is another team out there and it's not a walkover."
Young Lions boss Boothroyd admitted his team needed to be more "street-wise", with England picking up just one point at the Euros, adding that he was not going to leave his role after the disappointing tournament.
They reached the last four of the 2017 Championships after a penalty shoot-out defeat to Germany prevented them from progressing to the final.
Reed added: "We've had a lot of feedback from the boys. They hanged themselves and said they under-performed, that it wasn't Aidy. So was it Aidy? No it wasn't.
"We had good quality players, we had a good quality squad and we did under-perform."
England U21s face Turkey and Kosovo in their upcoming qualifying games for the next Championships in 2021.
Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood has been handed his first call-up for Boothroyd's side, with fellow teenagers Phil Foden, Reiss Nelson, Oliver Skipp and Morgan Gibbs-White also named in the squad.
