Theo Walcott has a few things he wants to get off his chest, the first being his belief that England don’t take international football as serious as their biggest rivals.
In an illuminating chat, Walcott casts his mind back to the 2009 Under-21 European Championships final when he started in a losing effort against a star-studded Germany side.
‘You could tell they fed off our energy,’ Walcott said. ‘When they got one and then two, you could see they didn’t want to take their foot off it.
‘They treated it so professionally which just showed if you do all the right things, good things will happen, and of course they won the World Cup [in 2014].
‘If you go into it and win this [Under-21] tournament, who knows where it will take these guys? You want winners in a team no matter what level, and if this squad wins this, other players will feed off that and grow to become better players, people and leaders. It’s so important.’
But there is a wider point that Walcott extrapolates out beyond this current iteration of Lee Carsley’s Under-21s, who started their Euros title defence on Thursday night with a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic.
England’s men’s team must take international tournament more seriously, feels Theo Walcott
His warning was also for the Under-21s, who started their Euros title defence in style this week
‘The Germans are so serious and sometimes we’re not as serious,’ he added.
‘That’s a shift we need to make and you could sense that against Senegal the other day [in the seniors].
‘We didn’t seem serious because it’s a friendly and everyone wants to go on holiday. We need to start being more serious, particularly at international level.’
The second point of order for Walcott is the intangibles that will see players graduate from Carsley’s group into Thomas Tuchel’s in time for the 2026 World Cup.
Setting standards on the pitch alone won’t be enough, Walcott insists.
‘I think it’s really valuable and important to be in good habits and to actually grab that opportunity and think: actually, this is really important,’ Walcott, who is working as a pundit for Channel 4 during the Under-21 Euros this month, said.
‘I think if you go into it half-heartedly, anything you do, maybe you’re not going to fail, but you’re not going to really enjoy it, right?
‘I understand talking on the field is a cliche, but I actually get the sense that if you want to be in the first team now, in Thomas Tuchel’s team, going to the World Cup, you need a little bit more, like really going into it. It’s very different, I feel.
‘It’s the full package now that they’re looking at.’
Walcott lost the Under-21s Euros final in 2009 and he felt Germany were more ‘serious’ about it
Many of Germany’s players that day went on to win the FIFA World Cup years later in 2014
There are introverted characters across the seniors and the Under-21s these days and while there is not one shoe that fits all – as a young player Walcott would shut himself away so he speaks from his own experience – being a key cog off the pitch, as well as on it, is taking on added significance.
‘You could be the best trainer but also if you’re not really involved in the day-to-day things, [like] if you just shut yourself away in the room…’ he said.
‘And I would shut myself in the room at times. It was very different for me. I couldn’t really relate to the players I was with [in the seniors] because of the age gap. So that’s the side of it which I had to manage in my own way.
‘At times I’d lock myself away and get on with things. And maybe it was the right or wrong thing, I don’t know, but for me at that time of my development, I was only 16, 17, so I was still learning about myself then at that age of being thrust into an environment which I’m not quite used to.
‘These guys, I feel, they’re going to have to tick a lot of boxes by doing the right things every minute when they’re on show.
‘That’s really important because you can look at the likes of Jordan Henderson in the first team environment, people think, yeah, he’s gone [to Saudi Arabia], da-da-da.
‘But, his behaviour, everything about his attitude on a day-to-day basis speaks volumes. It’s the reason why he’s still playing for England. Even Kyle Walker — it’s the same principles.
‘Having these guys is really important and treating every second when you’re on show is to be professional. I think that’s the habit you need to be in. You can’t just talk on the pitch.
Players showing good habits on and off the pitch will be key to breaking into the senior side
‘Everyone knows what the guys are going to do on the pitch and they want to go out and win, of course, but they’re going to see the other bits of how they interact with each other, how they make connections and how they bond.
‘If there’s any sense that there’s a group or environment that isn’t great, they won’t be at the tournament because they don’t want any disruption. So I think it’s important, you need to be careful, make sure you do the things away from the field properly. I’m sure they will.’
Carsley kickstarted this Euros title defence with a 4-2-2-2 striker-less system that operated off instinct and fluidity with a wealth of No 10s interchanging.
The absence of Liam Delap, who Walcott sees as the perfect profile to break Chelsea’s supposed striker ‘curse’, was not keenly felt in the win over Czech Republic but the lack of strikers to call on is emblematic of a wider problem in English football for Walcott.
‘I don’t like it,’ Walcott added. ‘I always feel that it shows where we are as a country because we can’t find a No 9 to play in a system.
‘For instance, I’ll give you an example from the other day when Morgan Rogers came on [for the seniors], he was non-existent.
‘He likes to drive with the ball, so why have players in positions where they are not used to? Yeah you might get the best out of other players because of this player and this role and it can drag players away… the perfect example who has really adapted themselves in that position as a false nine is [Ousmane] Dembele. Obviously he’s a lot more experienced, I get it, but we haven’t got a Dembele.
‘I think the No 9 side of things is a problem going into a tournament. You could get away with it in this one particularly but in the long run I’m not a big believer in not having nines.’
Liam Delap’s absence, and the growing trend of a lack of No 9s, is worrying Walcott right now
Under-21s boss Lee Carsley vowed to get creative and he started the Euros with a 4-2-2-2
The lack of No 9s and an influx of No 10s is making players, not just with England but in the game today, too ‘predictable’, another bug bear of Walcott’s
‘Everyone wants to be that really predictable player,’ he said.
‘When I say predictable I mean likes to come inside. Strikers are selfish, they just want to score goals. But now all of a sudden the wingers are starting to get more selfish because they want to cut in and do their thing. They’re not connecting like they did in the first place.
‘Then everyone wants to be No 10s because it’s the glamour position where you still need to work but can have that maverick feel about yourself.
‘The social media side of things, obviously people with what they see on YouTube of these guys in these positions, they’re going to feed off that.
‘When I was coming through I didn’t bother looking at videos or anything like that. I just wanted to go out and play. And I just feel that’s the side of it now. We’ve seen these guys in short clips, in good areas of the field, doing things and all the kids want to play there. Of course they do. You don’t see the big No 9s, the Delaps.
‘That’s why it worries me as an Arsenal fan, Delap going to Chelsea. I know they have been going for that No 9, that Drogba type, it’s that curse of the No 9.
‘I feel like he can break that curse because he’s a really good striker. He’s the next one after Harry Kane for me. That’s how much I like him as an English person but it disappoints me as an Arsenal fan if you don’t go after someone like that.
‘You can see it in him as well, you can see his fight. He doesn’t care who he plays against. That’s a side of it we’re missing as well from No 9s.
‘I’m not sure why we can’t develop anymore and it’s a sad, sad way we’re going. I’m a big believer in getting it out wide, dribbling one versus one, crossing it and seeing some headed goals.
Walcott spoke about how an influx of No 10s has turned many players into being ‘predictable’
‘When do we see that now? We barely see it. You just know they’ll go inside. It’s starting to become too predictable.’
No Delap and no striker is how Carsley and Co will look to defend their Euros title. For Walcott, he just wants to see an England team put their foot on the gas and be serious against the biggest nations.
It’s over to the Under-21s to show this next generation are cut from a different cloth to those who came before.
Channel 4 are broadcasting England Under-21s second group stage match against Slovenia on Sunday, June 15, live at 5pm
