Former England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce has said that the national side will continue to struggle unless the new generation of young players gain more experience before playing for the full team.

Pearce said that if the likes of Ross Barkley and Luke Shaw had played in the Toulon Tournament earlier in the summer they would have been able to perform better at the World Cup.

"Personally I would have sent Barkley, Shaw and Phil Jones to Toulon and the U21s this season to play for them and help to get the U21s to the final and hopefully to win it before we give them the exposure in the senior team," he told Sky Sports News.

"We are not putting the process in place to be successful. You have only got to look at France, Spain and Germany to see how many of their best young players are at all these major young tournaments and getting tournament experience before stepping up to the senior outfit.

"There is no surprise to me that when you look at the world champions - whoever they are - you only have to roll the clock back six years to see that probably they are the same players, or certainly a fair few of them, that have won at U20 or U21 level. or whatever it may be."

England finished bottom of their group in Brazil, which contained Italy, Costa Rica and Uruguay.