England U21 boss Stuart Pearce believes Aston Villa midfielder James Milner could be more valuable to the Three Lions cause than Manchester United's Wayne Rooney.

A series of extraordinary performances for club and country have catapulted Milner from World Cup hopeful to certainty this season.

Pearce said: "Wayne's form has created so much expectation and that's credit to him. His maturity on a football pitch has grown fantastically over the last 18 months. Everything about him has improved.

"But James Milner is the one I talk to my next generation about. Forty-six U-21 games, what does that tell you? It says he gets picked every time, it means he started very young and it shows that he was happy to turn up for every single match to represent the U-21s, even at times when he became a member of the senior squad.

"He didn't see it as a step down and that's the mentality that we're trying to forge in the young players. It's all experience in football and on the international scene so you should snap up as much as you can.

"I've been to major tournaments as a player and the pressures around you as an individual are the same whether it's a World Cup or an U-21s final."