He asked for a finish that was all guns blazing but, once again, it was a night when England shot themselves in the foot.
England avoided the ignominy of losing all three games at this European Championships but that will be no solace for Aidy Boothroyd, the beleaguered head coach.
They are going home early because they have defended abysmally and old habits were impossible to shake off against Croatia.
Fikayo Tomori shows his dejection as England let slip of the lead three times against Croatia
They looked to be on course for victory when Everton's Jonjoe Kenny scored a stunning goal
Kenny picked his head up from 25 yards out and rifled a spectacular effort into the far corner
But Josip Brekalo's brace, his second late in the contest, ensured further anguish for England
He found space beyond England's back line to slot between the goalkeeper's legs for 3-3
The frustration and dejection at the performance was etched across Tammy Abraham's face
Three times England led in this Group C deadrubber but three times they were pegged back.
If a team concedes nine times in 270 minutes, you don't need a magnifying glass to look for the issues of where it all went wrong. A bad back line has made them look a bad side.
As was the case against France and Romania, the Under-21s surrendered from positions of strength and, in some ways, this would have felt even worse.
England got off to a perfect start when Reiss Nelson stepped up to score from the spot
Nelson had been fouled but dusted himself down as he sent the goalkeeper the wrong way
He was congratulated by his team-mates having shown composure to score the opening goal
Croatia, who went into the game bottom of the group, got stuck in in search of an equaliser
England's fans have had little to cheer in the tournament so far but they saw a change early on
Boothroyd picked a number of his strongest players, including Phil Foden, but they were continually betrayed by basic errors.
It was England's intention to dominate from the first whistle but, just two minutes in, they were thankful to Dean Henderson for preventing the nightmare start – the goalkeeper flung himself acrobatically to tip Sandro Kulenovic's thumping header over the bar.
England recovered quickly and, soon, they had the lead.
Reiss Nelson, who will be part of the squad for the next qualification campaign, has been itching for his chance and when his 10th minute surge into the area was crudely halted by Branimir Kalaica, he stepped up to take the penalty.
But complacency set in for England and Brekalo soon equalised with a fine curling finish
