Howard's way, the wrong way

Wilkinson's failed to connect with his players

By BBC Sport Online's Nada Grkinic

Howard Wilkinson's reign as England Under-21 coach is over - and many people will be asking why it took the Yorkshireman so long to go.

It has been patent for some time that Wilkinson was not the right man to inspire England's youngsters.

After effectively ousting the successful Peter Taylor from the job, Wilkinson's tenure as coach was always going to be closely scrutinised.

For him, or any other suitable candidate, to take over a failing England U-21 side would have made some sense.

But to replace Taylor, whose England U-21 record was as exemplary as his rapport with the players, defied belief.

The unassuming and popular Taylor must also have wondered what he had done wrong to get the boot.

Taylor enjoyed great success with U-21s

The fact is that he had not done anything wrong - other than cast a shadow over Wilkinson in his role as the FA's technical director.

So in came Wilkinson, who had enjoyed success at Leeds first by guiding them back to the top flight in 1990 and then to the First Division title in 1992, to try his hand at coaching the U-21s.

Failure to connect

He got off to a winning start - which went some way to appeasing those who disagreed with his appointment - defeating Argentina 1-0 courtesy of a Joe Cole goal.

However, the hard work Taylor had put in to get side to the U-21s European Championship was soon undone.

After thrashing Turkey 6-0 in their second game, defeats to Italy and Slovakia signalled an early exit from the tournament.

And the gulf between the continent's stronger footballing nations and England was highlighted when Wilkinson's team were beaten 4-0 by Spain in March.

In between, Wilkinson had led the senior side to a goalless draw against Finland in a World Cup qualifier before Sven Goran Eriksson's appointment as national coach.

In the same way that Taylor was able to communicate with his players, Eriksson has already made a huge impression on England's senior squad.

That surely speaks volumes about the theory-loving Wilkinson's shortfalls in this most important area.

Greek tragedy

As interesting and intelligent as Wilkinson is, failure to communicate effectively with his players was invariably going to lead to confusion, a lack of trust in his ability even.

Considering many of those under his stewardship were and are managed by men of immense presence - Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Gerard Houllier - Wilkinson would have done well to impose himself in a similar way.

But Wilkinson, unlike Taylor who understood that his role was to groom younger players for senior service and thereby have his teams mirror the senior side, preferred to adopt his own tactics.

He opted to play 4-3-3 in his last outing against Greece while Eriksson is a keen advocate of the 4-4-2 formation which he has so far used to great effect.

Eriksson already commands respect

Similarly, Wilkinson has previously spoken of the need for versatility and for nurturing wide players - at odds with his decision to play 4-3-3 - but also at odds with the FA's role model, the French, whose approach has produced stunning results.

Another below-par performance against Greece, which saw them lose 3-1 left Wilkinson with little choice but to mull over his future.

His decision to step down is no tragedy for the U-21 set-up, which may now be able to come out of its period of stagnation.

And he can now concentrate fully on doing his job as technical director - behind his desk.