Too quick to hit it long, too slow at everything else - Smalling admits England kids have to pull their fingers out

Stuart Pearce is tackling the same old failings in English football.

New generations come and go through his Under-21 ranks but come the heat of the tournament battle, from England kids right up to Fabio Capello’s World Cup stars, the problems are the same.

Manchester United defender Chris Smalling can read the game on the pitch, and showed he is astute off it when he digested England’s goalless draw against Ukraine.

All is not lost, but Pearce now needs a win against the Czech Republic on Sunday to progress to the semi-finals.

Smallings assessment of England's play is spot on: Too impatient with the final ball, too slow a tempo and not playing to English clubs' strengths.

Thankfully, there is still a belief that England can put their sluggish start to the European Under-21 Championship behind them and handle the pressure of a do-or-die situation.

England's youngsters came here with the global profile that comes with being regulars in the Premier League - and sky-high transfer values.

As usual, the FA have provided the squad with luxury accommodation and facilities here in Denmark... in contract to the Belarus team, who travelled from their homeland by coach.

Smalling says it is now time to step up to the plate and show what they are made of.

"Where to improve? Our tempo. We need to move the ball a lot quicker and maybe play things a little bit simpler," he said of the Ukraine stalemate.

“Sometimes, we’re maybe a little bit impatient getting to that final ball.

“But we’ll work on a few things on the training ground just to make sure we all come out firing come Sunday.”

“We’ve got the solid base. Hopefully we can start troubling that goal.

“We started off well in the first 10 minutes but then we got a bit sloppy and didn’t really hit our tempo in the game.

“A draw wasn’t good enough. I think we probably had about 15 attempts on goal. We started to open up a little bit more in the second half. We’ll start working on that clinical finishing.”

But Smalling, who has had a fine tournament alongside new club colleague Phil Jones, is convinced England will show grit and rise to the occasion.

He added: “It’s still in our hands. If we win on Sunday, we go through. We’ve had a couple of times, in the play-offs, and against Portugal and Lithuania, where we’ve had to stand up and be counted.

“We can play with that sort of pressure and I think it’ll prepare us well coming into Sunday because we’ve got everything to play for.

“Come Sunday, you’ll see a different England side. When there’s everything to play for, all or nothing, I think we really do step up. These lads really do stick together and you’ll see a performance come Sunday.”

Pearce will keep his back four unchanged, but has a dilemma as he seeks a midfield formation that will work.

The power of Fabrice Muamba has been missed in the holding role, but Michael Mancienne is the skipper and Pearce refuses to drop him.

Jordan Henderson has not hit top form, neither has Danny Rose on the left.

Henri Lansbury took up more advanced positions when he came on against Ukraine and could get a chance, and Marc Albrighton could be a threat on the right.

Danny Welbeck and Daniel Sturridge should retain their places up front.

Right-back Kyle Walker added: “There’s a good togetherness and team spirit in the team.

"Not every game can go as well you want it to, or plan it to. But hopefully we can improve in the next game and get the three points.

“We’ve always got to be confident with the players we’ve got in there. They’re all Premier League players. They can always be a threat, whoever we are playing against.”