England Under-21s ‘slow’ and ‘lethargic’ as Carsley bemoans lack of tempo in defeat

Boss Lee Carsley admits his England Under-21s suffered a “wake-up call” after their record unbeaten run ended.

The Young Lions suffered a first qualifying defeat in 11 years following a 2-1 loss to Slovenia in Huddersfield.

It was the first time they had been beaten in qualification for 55 games – since losing 2-1 to Belgium in November 2011 – after Djed Spence’s early own goal and Mark Zabukovnik’s header.

Cameron Archer pulled a goal back in injury time but the Young Lions, who have already reached Euro 2023 by winning Group G, were deservedly beaten.

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Carsley said: “We were slow, lethargic, our tempo wasn’t great. Hopefully it’s a bit of a wake-up call that we’ve still got a lot of improving to do as a squad.

“They’ve had a hard, long season. We’ve been in camp for two weeks, we’d already qualified and we were just off it.

“If you play at 95 per cent at this level you will get found out. We didn’t do the basics well enough. We’ve got to learn from that. It leaves a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

“You have to turn it into a positive. We’ve spoken about responding to setbacks. If they’re going to have prolonged careers, they’ll have lots of ups and downs. It’s important that we learn.”

Slovenia have won four points off England during qualifying after a 2-2 draw earlier in the campaign, where they came from 2-0 behind.

They continued to be the scourge of the Young Lions when Spence glanced Luka Ticic’s free-kick into his own net after just 54 seconds.

From then it was an uphill battle with the hosts struggling to find the momentum which had seen them win their previous three games this month.

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