RIO FEARS A FRAILURE
Defence is weakest link and Maguire the biggest worry warns Ferdinand
RIO FERDINAND has raised World Cup alarm bells by claiming England’s defence is their “weakest link”.
Ferdinand believes the biggest concern is Harry Maguire’s lack of form and game time, which has left the Three Lions facing a “worst-case scenario” at the back.
The former England defender, who played at the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, believes any of the centre-halves from his generation would walk into Gareth Southgate’s starting XI for Qatar.
They were blessed with Sol Campbell, John Terry, Ledley King and Jonathan Woodgate while the current team are beset with injuries and no settled defence.
Ferdinand (inset), who won 81 caps during a glittering career, said: “I’ve always thought that if you’re going to win a tournament, you’ve got to have a good defence.
“Italy had experienced, solid defenders to win the Euros. You can go down the years and you can see that.
“That’s where we’re probably at our weakest now. Even if there weren’t injuries or lack of form, I feel like that was our weakest area anyway.
“Kyle Walker, our quickest defender, has been out. Maguire, form and injuries. When you’re looking at it, you’re thinking, ‘What are we going to do?’
“Harry has been phenomenal for England. But his form has gone out the window for Man United. He’s not in the team, he’s got an injury as well.
“Going into a tournament, I couldn’t think of another worst-case scenario. I would be concerned about that.
“But Harry hasn’t let Gareth down. As a manager you’re going to go with what you know. He trusts him. The problem he’s got is it’s not like he’s sitting there where he has four or five other candidates like in my generation, where you’d be able to go, ‘He’s out of form,’ or, ‘He’s not playing,’ or, ‘He’s injured.’
“I had Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher, Jonathan Woodgate, Ledley King, the list goes on. All of those players start today.
“There’s no one in there now that you go, ‘They jump out as the No.1 candidates.’ So it’s difficult. That could, in the end, be our Achilles heel.
“Is Trevoh Chalobah going to be ready? He’s playing really well. But last month it was Fikayo Tomori. Before that it was Marc Guehi. It’s a real worry.”
With Reece James now having been ruled out of the tournament, Ferdinand also warns that it would be dangerous to take a gamble on too many half-fit players.
“You can go in there with one maybe like that,” said Ferdinand. “But we’ve got Kyle Walker, Maguire, in the defensive line, who are potentially going to be going in there off the back of some injuries and a lack of form. That’s a lot of players to be doing that with.”
Ferdinand believes the England teams he played in arguably had more individual talent but the current squad’s strength is their togetherness.
The former Leeds and United star added: “It’s weird, everyone says we were the ‘Golden Generation’ and we should have won but you look at the teams we were up against, like Brazil.
“Look at their top-five players against ours – they had Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cafu, Roberto Carlos. Kaka was sub.
“We had world-class players then. But was Scholesy (Paul Scholes) going to be much better than their players? Was Michael Owen going to be much better than Ronaldo? Was Becks (David Beckham) going to be much better than Cafu or Roberto Carlos? They were a formidable team.
“There’s a real togetherness with this squad and Gareth’s helped create that culture with England where it’s very much club-orientated.
“It’s more aligned to a club than going away with an international team for the odd week. They all seem to enjoy each other’s company – probably the opposite of what we were like!”