Pearce issues warning to his Under-21 stars

Stuart Pearce believes England could end up winning the European Under-21 Championship with a completely different set of players than those which start their tournament opener against Spain.

At least seven of Pearce's 23-man squad appear certainties for Sunday's Group B clash in Denmark, with the identity of the other four dependent largely on the head coach's tactical game plan.

But Pearce knows all too well that circumstances can necessitate a total change of policy in a tournament setting.

England's senior team went into the 1990 World Cup with one starting XI but finished the competition with quite another, having made numerous changes throughout.

"The team that starts the tournament might not be as good as the team that finishes the tournament for us," said Pearce, who will travel with his squad to Denmark tomorrow.

England were runners-up two years ago and although Pearce has followed the same blueprint as 2009 in the build-up to this month's tournament, he admitted the current crop were more of a work in progress than the team of two yesars ago.

"The preparation's probably been nigh on identical, to be honest with you," he said.

"I've been absolutely delighted with their standard of training, this group and the last group. The camaraderie with this group's been fantastic.

"The one thing we had two years ago, I probably knew exactly the standard of the team that I had before I went into the tournament.

"This group, I'm not sure what I've got, and I mean that in a good way, because I think they can get better and better as a group.

"We've improved, the likes of (Jordan) Henderson and (Phil) Jones have come in in the last nine months, and there have been a lot of players come to the party.

"I'm very buoyed up by it."

England go into the tournament as Europe's number one ranked nation but they face the toughest possible group having drawn Czech Republic and Ukraine on top of Spain.

Their build-up since qualifying has yielded mixed results, although Pearce has only been able to call on anything like his strongest line-up on two occasions, both victories.

"The results are only a little bit iffy if you look at the team that's been changed on a regular basis," said Pearce, who will manage England at the finals for the third successive tournament.

"Every time I have the likes of (Chris) Smalling and Jones and Henderson and (Daniel) Sturridge and so on, strangely enough we seem to win.

"When you chop and change the team and have a look around and players are not used to playing with each other, it's more and more difficult.

"Plus, we've had some tough games. We've been in Germany, been in Italy. But I'm very pleased with what I've seen so far.

"How far we'll go in the summer, I'm not sure. We've got experience of tournament football - me, my staff and the players.

"We've got a lot of players, something in the region of six or seven, that have been there before.

"We've got a young squad. There's maybe nine or 10 of them I think can go on next year for us, so it's exciting."