ON one hand, Rio Ferdinand is glad Gareth Southgate cast off England’s traditional safety-first approach.
But as a fully paid-up member of the Retired Centre-Backs’ Union, Ferdinand reckons Southgate has no choice — because he does not have good enough defenders.
The former Three Lions and Manchester United star, 39, said: “That’s the way he sees his team playing, playing the ball out from the back.
“For far too long, many England teams were defence first. We didn’t have the right balance.
“If you look at our defensive record in my generation with England in tournaments, it was very good.
“But we didn’t have the balance as we struggled to score even though we had very good attacking and midfield players.
“That’s Southgate’s problem now, to get the balance right between defending and attacking.
“He’s saying ‘we’re going to go on the front foot, we want the ball. We are going to hurt teams, we are going to instigate the play of the game’.
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“They’re not conducive to a team that sits back and defends. Our defenders aren’t good enough to do that. If they were, he would play a back four.
“He is going for strength in numbers at the back. That’s why I think that he plays three central defenders and two wing-backs.”
In Ferdinand’s playing days, successive England managers tried — and mostly failed — to get the best out of a host of top-quality midfielders.
In particular, the thought of poor Paul Scholes being shoved out to the left flank so that Sven-Goran Eriksson could accommodate both Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard in the centre still brings a tear to the eye.
Ferdinand feels Southgate’s challenge in Russia is to find the right combination with the attacking players at his disposal — as well as work out which midfielders will supply the ammunition.
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The legendary defender said: “He has the issues which other managers had in midfield, in attacking areas.
“You have Marcus Rashford, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy, Raheem Sterling, Dele Alli, Jesse Lingard. That’s six to fill in to two, three or maybe four positions.
“How does he get them in and keep the squad happy? How does Southgate keep getting impact from players who are left out? All these things are going to play a part in a tournament.
“If he plays Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier holding, who is going to get those attacking players the ball?
“They don’t play those balls through the lines as quickly and efficiently as a Carrick or a Scholes would.
“This is why Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a big miss. He’s someone who can turn defence into attack quickly from midfield areas.
“Does he drop Lingard in there in a three, who is elusive and moves brilliantly with or without the ball? Does he put Dele back in there?
“There’s questions over every player in the midfield areas, whether they are the right man for the job.”
Ferdinand was a genuine ball-playing defender and he cannot hide his exasperation that most of the current generation of English stars are unable to master both skills.
He said: “It’s not the art of defending that’s gone from the game, it’s the basic fundamentals of defending.
“I could drag out ten clips of absolute basic, what-you-learn-as-a-kid defending.
“Defending your front post, getting your body shape right so you don’t kick the ball in the back of your net or off for a corner, because your feet ain’t working properly or aren’t in the right place.
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“It’s not simple stuff but if you work on the basics every other day, as players of my generation did, you would see less of that.
“Today, if someone says ‘he’s a good centre half’, people ask ‘is he good on the ball?’ That’s the first question.
“When it should be ‘has he got good instincts as a defender? Does he want to defend?’ Then: ‘Can he play?’ But people’s ideas of defenders are different. That’s the world we live in.”
Rio Ferdinand will be part of the BBC’s team of pundits at Russia 2018.
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