Rio Ferdinand was impressed with England’s performance against Germany last Tuesday.
England lost the friendly game 1-0 in Dortmund, but showed encouraging signs in Gareth Southgate’s first game since his official appointment as manager.
Ferdinand, writing in his column for the Sunday Times, was particularly impressed with England’s passing out from the back, and the decision to play a three-man central defence.
The former Manchester United defender has praised Southgate’s tactics, and compared them to how the England team was picked during his own international career.
Ferdinand was part of the country’s “golden generation” of very talented and successful players.
Well, successful at club level. Despite possessing an abundance of great footballers, the national team failed to make it past a quarter-final during Rio’s international career, from 1997 to 2011.
England have won just a single knock-out game in a tournament since 2006.
The former defender, who earned 81 caps for his country, says that the England teams he played in were selected to fit star players, rather than what system was best for the players, and it’s difficult to argue with that.
He also said he was encouraged that Southgate doesn’t appear to be doing this. Not yet, anyway.
Michael Carrick's international career tells you everything you need to know about the England team https://t.co/Ve1WsSkTtg
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) March 4, 2017
For too many years we have been playing formations for the sake of it,” Ferdinand wrote in his column for the Sunday Times.
“It should be about the players you have and what’s best suited to them. When I look back at my international career, nearly the whole time it was a case of the manager deciding the formation in advance and then the star players he wanted on the pitch trying to make everything fit.
“It’s refreshing that Southgate is looking at things differently.”
Ferdinand also wrote that, if Glenn Hoddle not been sacked as England manager in 1999, and the team had continued to play a back-three, then they would have been a lot more successful.
“On my full England debut I played alongside Gareth Southgate in a three-man defence.
“I was 19. Glenn Hoddle was manager and I was talking with him about it the other day. His long-term plan for England involved me in that role at the centre of a back three, bringing the ball out.
“If Hoddle had stayed England manager, I’d have been a different player — and I believe England would have won something. We would have got to a final or semi-final.”
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