Squad meet to prepare for European U19 Championships.

UEFA European U19 Championships
The Finals
18-30 July 2010
Normandy, France
Click here for fixtures
By Nicholas Veevers

England’s U19 squad came together on Monday as the start of this summer’s European U19 Championship draws ever nearer.

Noel Blake’s squad had a three day training camp at Warwick University two weeks ago, and with the final list of 18 players for the Finals now confirmed, they have returned there as preparations re-commence for the competition which begins at the weekend.

The Young Lions face Austria in their opening game in Flers next Sunday and with the team heading to northern France on Thursday, it gives the Head Coach chance to get the players together for a few days to work on a variety of things.

With pre-season still in its early days at club level, there will be a fair amount of fitness work to be done to get the players up to match fitness, but with three competitive international games all to be played in the space of a week too, there will be tactical and team work high on the agenda as well.

“It has to be a mixture really, so it will be a football-fitness training style and they will need that physical element in their work,” revealed Blake.

“Most clubs follow the same sort of protocol anyway and everything will be recorded by us and then passed on to the clubs, so that is important from our point of view.

“There will be some intensity in the early part of the week as we try to get them up to match fitness, but then we will build toward the games at the appropriate time too.”

Changes in the squad this week have seen Blackburn Rovers midfielder Jason Lowe join the group in place of Andros Townsend whilst goalkeeper Lee Nicholls has taken the place of James Severn.

There will be more from the U19 camp on TheFA.com over the coming week as they build-up to their first game of the Championship at the weekend.