England U20s head coach Paul Simpson praised the development of Ipswich trio Andre Dozzell, Flynn Downes and Trevoh Chalobah after England’s 2-0 win against Germany in the U20s Elite League.
Downes earned his first U20s cap as a late sub at Colchester’s JobServe Community Stadium, with Dozzell coming off after 61 minutes and Chalobah, who is on loan with the Blues from Chelsea for the season, completing the 90 minutes as captain.
After the game, Simpson spoke about the progress each player has made, particularly Dozzell who missed the majority of last season with a knee injury that kept him out of the England U19s European Championship squad.
"They’ve been excellent,” Simpson said of the trio. "The whole squad have been superb this week, we’ve had a long week of training, we got together on Monday so it’s been a long week to prepare for this game.
"All three of them have done really well. We’ve got Andre and Flynn that have come through the academy and we’ve also got Tristan Nydam, who’s now gone out on loan up to Scotland, who has been excellent.
"Trevoh Chalobah is on loan there now from Chelsea and they’re getting a great football education at that club and thankfully we’re benefitting from it as well.
"Flynn was with us last season for the U19s and unfortunately wasn’t able to join us for the Euro Finals, but he was excellent when he was called upon and he got a few caps.
"This is the first game he’s been involved with us, he came as a training player on the last camp and showed us and reminded us of what he’s all about.
"He’s really physically developed over the last six to nine months and I think the improvement in Andre from the October camp to now is incredible, so hopefully he’ll keep getting stronger and stronger and keep showing the football ability he’s got and keep developing.”