By Mark Fordham
20 Jun 2011 17:41:00
Andy Carroll and Jack Wilshere
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Former England Under-21 captain Michael Mancienne has admitted that the team’s performances in the European Championships would have been much better had Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll been involved.
Wilshere had initially stated that he wanted to join the team for the tournament but after receiving advice from senior Arsenal figures he performed a U-turn citing burnout, while Liverpool front man Carroll was not selected after struggling with injuries towards the end of the season.
England looked bereft of ideas in their opening two group games and Mancienne, who was used as a makeshift midfielder against Spain, believes that the team would have fared much better with the pair included.
He told reporters: “The type of player he is, he’s very creative, so he would have made a big difference.
“We would have gone through if we’d had the likes of Jack and Andy Carroll here.
“Obviously, they play a different type of football to us, they’re really good at keeping the ball.
“We could have done better in the first two games and probably wouldn’t have to be in this situation.”
England’s failure to qualify for the semi-final after defeat to the Czech Republic has led many to call for team coach Stuart Pearce’s head, but midfielder Fabrice Muamba is backing the former Manchester City boss to continue in his role.
“You don’t judge the gaffer on just one tournament,” Muamba said.
“He took us to two semi-finals and one final. I’m sure the team that comes in, in 2013 will do better.
“There are always excuses on top of excuses. We just have to look at ourselves in the mirror, look at what went wrong and rectify it in the future.”