Jack Butland insists English football is not in a bad place despite Gareth Southgate's side crashing out of the Under-21 European Championship.
The Young Lions' fifth successive appearance at the finals ended in a third straight group-stage exit on Wednesday after a capitulation against Italy.
Southgate's men arrived at the Ander Stadium with destiny in their own hands, but fell to an embarrassing 3-1 defeat, leaving them bottom of Group B and preparing for an early trip home.
Yet another summer of disappointment raises understandable questions about the state of English football, but Under-21s captain Butland rejected the notion that the national set-up is in a difficult place.
"I don't think it is," he said. "Obviously everyone will look to these kind of tournaments and expect us to do well, as they should.
"We expect to do well and expected to do better than we did, but as hard as it is you've got to learn from these experiences.
"There's so much ability in this squad - young players that have come in, players that have got years and years of top football ahead of them.
"I just hope they learn from this experience, learn what it takes to win on the big stage."
A number of players in the Czech Republic may never represent their country again given the huge step up to senior international football.
That in itself fuels the debate of whether eligible big names such as Raheem Sterling, Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley should have been included in the squad.
"Shoulda, woulda, coulda - it's all that again," Butland said in response.
"They weren't here, it was down to us. Did we have the ability to get out of the group? Yes, we did. Did we perform well enough? No.
"Those guys are fantastic players but there are fantastic players here. We just didn't do enough.
"Especially tonight, you've got to learn how to shut out games. Whether you're at the bottom of the Premier League table and need to shut out a game to stay in the league or need a shut-out to become champions.
"Whatever it is, these players are going to experience that and tonight is a taste of that. Hopefully they learn from it."
Butland says his "heart is hurting" after exiting at the group-stage juncture - a familiar experience having been part of the Under-21 squad in Israel two years ago.
The goalkeeper bemoaned his side's toothlessness in the Czech Republic - "I think we were pretty between boxes but that means nothing - you've got to be ruthless" - but believes they have the quality to kick on.
"It's not a disease," he said. "We've beaten lesser opposition in qualifying and we've had big friendlies and beat big teams.
"We beat Portugal, we beat Germany in friendlies and you've got to take those experiences and get to a stage like this and you've got to be ruthless. You've got to be so mentally at it, be physically ready.
"I believe that our preparations were perfect and we couldn't have done any more on that side of things.
"The staff, the manager, Steve Holland - everyone has put everything in place for us to win and we didn't bring it.
"Coming up against these teams, you're not going to get the run of the green, not going to experience 90 minutes where you're totally dominant - you're going to have spells when it's up against you.
"You've got to learn and you've got to be able to deal with it. A two-minute spell in the first half cost us our tournament because a draw would have been enough."
Source: PA
