PLAYING players out of position is okay at youth level and to an extent junior football, but to do it at international level is a bad idea.

David Platt's Under 21s lost to Italy in the European Championships and, to be fair, it wasn't because of players being out of position because Platt had realised his mistake and put it right after about half an hour. They lost to magical piece of skill by the Italian centre forward.

It was a game that young England really didn't want to lose and the coach picked a side that was a little defensive.

And it was asking for trouble to have David Dunn playing just off the 6ft 7ins Peter Crouch of Aston Villa - who was only playing his second international and who has only played a handful of games in the Premiership - and Leeds United's Alan Smith playing as a right hand midfield player.

Luckily for England, David Platt had the bottle to change things round, putting Dunn back into midfield and Smith in his favoured position up front to give Crouch some needed support.

Dunn, Crouch and to some extent Smith don't play these positions for their clubs so how do you expect them to play international football and be a success?

Smith has played right midfield for Leeds, but only because of injuries and the number of class forwards Leeds possess and it really hasn't worked for them. Kevin Keegan found to his cost it doesn't work playing players out of position at this level.

At youth football it is good for young players to play different positions it gives them a good understanding of each other's games, young players will play anywhere if they love the game.

I wonder how many training sessions the England team had before they went out to play Italy, not many you can be sure of that.

But at least Platt changed it round quickly. There are managers who would have been too frightened to admit it wasn't working.