Platt blames mass meddling for young England setback

The England Under-21 coach, David Platt, said he was unconcerned by the lack of chances his reshuffled side created against their Italian counterparts at the Stadio Dei Marmi in Carrara on Tuesday night.

With two difficult-looking European Under-21 Championship qualifiers coming up, England's young hopefuls created only one noteworthy opportunity – a Shaun Wright-Phillips drive from close range which, somewhat embarrassingly, went out for a throw-in.

It was left to the Empoli striker Marco Borriello to score the only goal of the game in the 75th minute, burying a precise header beyond the debutant Derby goalkeeper, Lee Grant.

In terms of preparation for the qualifiers with Portugal on 28 March and Turkey four days later, the build-up and the eventual result were hardly ideal.

Platt went into the game without several regulars thanks to the senior England coach, Sven Goran Eriksson, experimenting with new players in last night's friendly at Upton Park against Australia.

With five new faces in the squad, Platt mimicked Eriksson's penchant for making mass substitutions at half-time, a plan which backfired as a disjointed England suffered after a comfortable first half.

It meant the Italy goalkeeper Marco Amelia was never tested, a fact which Platt passed off as irrelevant. "It would be a concern if this were a qualifying game," he said. "It's not that we lacked a cutting edge; it just that we didn't get enough crosses in, although the one thing I will say is that the Italians are the best in the world at stopping crosses. I think their mothers must play tapes to them in the womb or something. But I'm not going to have a go at anybody. I know we didn't create a great deal, but then we didn't get into a rhythm."

Instead, Platt "had a go" at himself, readily conceding he "messed up" in meddling with the team during the second half when he made six changes.

Grant made his debut along with the Blackburn defender James McEveley, the Bolton midfielder Kevin Nolan and the Ipswich duo Darren Bent and Darren Ambrose, while Joleon Lescott also figured.

Platt added: "I came here with the intention of playing everybody, and when we were up against it I was making it worse by making changes.

"The first-half performance was very positive, but then they came out of the traps better than us in the second half. Although we weathered it, people were coming into a game that was difficult. Normally you would make a substitution to ride out the purple patch or you would change something on the pitch, but I messed it up.

"But what do you do? You can't drag people all the way out here and give them five minutes at the end of a game. It sounds daft, but in my room today I had almost got the substitutions in my mind at what minute I would be making them.

"In the game, you are following that almost to the letter to make sure people are gaining in experience and getting a game, and that's the most important thing."

Despite his disappointment, Platt felt the players learned from the experience. "What was pleasing for me is people who have been on the fringe like Matt Taylor and Bobby Zamora, who have been in past squads and have only come on as substitute, played very well – and that's a positive to take out of it," he said. "But we will have to wait and see who we have available when we get to those two qualifiers."