Liverpool and England midfielder Steven Gerrard has hit back at comments made by Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand about the current England squad after the former-international claimed the country lack ‘an identity’.
The attack from Ferdinand came on Monday after he revealed that the first-team squad don’t have any connection with the U-21’s, U-20’s or the U-18’s and the United defender also admitted that he wants England to miss out on a few serious competitions so that they can take that time reinforce a serious identity.
Below you can ready what was said by the Red Devil’s centre-back.
‘It’s going to take someone with big balls to come and grab England by the scruff of the neck and say, “This is what we are going to do and it might take 10 years to do it”.
‘We might not qualify for the World Cup or European Championship, but I would rather not qualify for one or two tournaments knowing, in 10 years’ time, we will have an identity we can be proud of.
‘I don’t see the connection between the senior team and the Under 21s or the Under 17s or the Under 20s — and that doesn’t bode well for the England team.
‘There is a new system being put in place and St George’s Park is part of that. We started to see something when Glenn Hoddle was in charge, a bit of an identity with free-flowing football.
‘Since then I don’t think we have had a real identity. If all the names were taken off the back of the shirts and the colours were changed, you couldn’t tell an England team.
‘You look at an Italian team, a Dutch team, a Spanish team, a German team or a Brazilian team, without seeing the names on the shirts you would identify them because they’re working from a script.
‘You could put an Under 16 lad into the senior Spanish team or Italian team, he might not have the attributes in terms of physique and speed to be able to deal with it, but positionally I’m sure he’d know what to do because they’re taught that, day in, day out.’
Since then, Steven Gerrard has given his thoughts on Ferdinand’s comments and he has admitted that he doesn’t pay too much attention to what the United-man has to say about England.
‘I’m not interested in what Rio has got to say about this group of players.
‘When you play for England, there are always a lot of opinons outside the group, especially in a World Cup year.
‘There will be more people voicing opinons but when we’re inside, we don’t take much notice of what is being said on the outside.
‘This team does have an identity. We’ve a good team, some top players and I’m confident we can prove it this year.’
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
