Inexperienced English players will learn from harsh Dutch lesson

England were given a harsh lesson in international football last night, as Holland defeated the Three Lions 3-2 at Wembley.

It was very much a learning experience for a lot of the players involved though and also for caretaker manager Stuart Pearce.

Experience

Prior to the match I heard the statistic that between them the England starting line-up only had around 200 caps.

The Dutch side were far more experienced with over 600 caps between their first 11. That shows how inexperienced the England side were compared to Holland.

Even England captain for the night Scott Parker has only won 11 caps. Stuart Pearce kept to his word and tried to experiment with some less experienced players, with mixed results.

Missing

The England team that starts the European Championships will look very different from the one that played the Oranje. Pearce’s team had numerous first choice players missing, some of them by Pearce’s choice.

Pearce wanted to see how some of the less inexperienced players coped on the international stage and unfortunately they showed their naivety at times. The two goals were probably prime examples of goals that could have been stopped if the England team had shown better awareness.

Tough

Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck play as a lone striker and I think he had a tough night. He tried his heart out but he completely lacked any sort of service up to him. Welbeck is a finisher and he didn’t get a chance to practice his art.

However there will be games like this ahead of him on the international stage were he has to sacrifice himself for the sake of the team. I’m sure the 21 year-old gained a lot from playing the role. Welbeck will no doubt go on to have a bright future at international level.

Promising

Another young player that did impress last night was Daniel Sturridge. The Chelsea attacker came on as a first half substitute for Steven Gerrard and was arguably the most lively England player on the pitch. The 22 year-old loves to run at defences and defenders hate players with pace.

Sturridge has always had the talent but there were always question marks about his temperament. However in the last 18 months or so he has matured as a person and a footballer. Sturridge is the sort of bright player that is likely to play a big part for England in years to come.

The youngster picked up an injury late on in the game and I hope it’s not too serious. Sturridge has suddenly jumped up the striking pecking order with Darren Bent likely to miss European Championships.

Fantastic

Holland wasn’t overly impressive last night but one man made the difference, that one man was Bayern Munich winger Arjen Robben. The former-Chelsea winger opened the scoring with a superb solo effort, before scoring the injury-time winner with a well-taken curled strike.

Robben is the sort of talent that these England players will need to get accustomed to facing. They may come up against good players in the Premier League but some players are on another level.

Unfortunately for Robben he has proved consistently inconsistent throughout his career. However when he is on form he is hard to stop. A few of the England players could learn a lot from the flying Dutchman.

Learning

Last nights game was about learning lessons that these players can take into future international games. Holland are one of the best teams international football has to offer and England didn’t play poorly against them.

However, the Dutch picked on the vulnerability and naivety of the team and exposed it. That is what good, experienced international teams do and they did it to perfection last night for the first two goals.

It wasn’t a bad night for England and their rookie boss. The result wasn’t important, it was the experience that mattered and hopefully that experience will bode well for the international future of those inexperienced England players.

What did we learn from last night’s England v Holland clash?