Sir Trevor Brooking says England's uninspired performances at the European Under-21 Championship are due to our flawed education system.

The manager, Stuart Pearce, went into the tournament with high hopes and a squad gleaming with expensive Premier League players but his team are in danger of suffering an early elimination following pedestrian draws against Spain and Ukraine.

Only victory on Sunday against the highly regarded Czech Republic will prolong England's participation but Brooking believes that, even if England do make it out of the group stages, it will not disguise the fact that most English players still lag behind their counterparts in the world's leading nations in terms of technique and game intelligence. While England have defended quite solidly in their two games, they have scored only once and generally lacked ingenuity and even cohesion going forward. This, says Brooking, is England's hallmark at all levels.

"[Wednesday's 0-0 draw with Ukraine] was a fair result and highlights some of the issues," said the FA's director of football development. "Before the tournament we said the challenge would be to score goals. Creativity and subtlety in the final third is probably something neglected in all the age groups. That is something we have to transform in academies.

"You have to be doing those things at 12-13 and one of the key areas is playing in-between opposing players, looking forward or diagonally. I think we look at the safety pass too early. Ukraine worked and our composure went in certain situations or people don't offer themselves up for angles. That's when it breaks down."

Having been deemed too tired after an arduous domestic season to take part in the tournament, Arsenal's Jack Wilshere has been conspicuous by his absence in Denmark but Brooking says the country should not be in a position where it is reliant on one artful midfielder. He said that one of the factors impeding the development of skills in young English players was excessive emphasis on results – as opposed to performances – from an early age.

"Jack could have made the difference in all our teams – Under-19s, Under-21s and seniors – because he does epitomise what we're talking about. But we shouldn't be looking at one Jack. We should have more than that. Against Ukraine, in the first 15 minutes, there were many opportunities to knock it between people but we tend to play safe. And that is what you have to do much earlier in development, encourage them to make mistakes in matches. It doesn't matter about losing five games in a row, just play that way."

Earlier this year Brooking and the FA general secretary, Alex Horne, released a 25-point plan for producing better young players. Those proposals were a reaction to England's drab showing at the 2010 World Cup and were aimed at complementing the Future Game plan that the FA published last year.

Brooking, however, claims that such grand plans are being hampered by a lack of resources and cooperation. Until those are forthcoming, suggests Brooking, English successes, such as the triumph at last year's European Under-17 Championship, will remain few and far between. "We're all set to go, we just need the funding. It's a long-term issue that needs long-term investment, which is what happened in Germany 10 years ago. We're in that boat and have been talking about it for four years but we've got to get the buy-in from clubs and the funding."