The England U19s continued their impressive recent record at the UEFA European Youth Championship by lifting the trophy for the second time in their last four attempts. The annual tournament, cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, has seen England win it twice and reach the semi-finals once since 2016.
Before this recent resurgence at the international youth level, England had only won the tournament once since 1980. The young three lions now share the joint-most trophies at the tournament, 11, with Spain.
Coached by ex-Liverpool youth team player Ian Foster, England dominated the competition from the first qualifying round to the final in Slovakia. The 45-year-olds side won 10 (including the final which was decided in extra time) of their 11 matches and drew one. They amassed 27 goals and conceded just three.
This analysis will be presented in the form of a scout report. The focus will be on how England set pressing traps and how they create goalscoring opportunities through their positional attacks. In this tactical analysis, we analyse the key tactics behind England’s title-winning campaign at the UEFA European Youth Championship.
Statistical analysis
As the above tactical diagram shows, England deployed a 3-4-3 formation. Although there were different tactical tweaks for each match, Foster set his side up in this formation in all five of their matches in the competition.
At the finals, England scored 12 goals from an expected xG of 11.9 meaning, in statistical terms, they were deserving of their impressive goals haul. Their xG per match was 2.38 with their direct opponents averaging 0.92 xG per match.
Ca
