The Manchester United defenders claims his teammate should have been used ahead of Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson.
Rio Ferdinand has criticised England’s tactics and Roy Hodgson’s selections at Euro 2012 in an interview with The Sun.
His comments will predictably not have done much for Manchester-Liverpool relations, even though many would agree that Jordan Henderson was not the man Roy Hodgson should have turned to.
In the absence of Michael Carrick, who ruled himself out after initially not being selected for the squad, Henderson’s inclusion and selection underlined just how thin England’s options have become.
Ferdinand claimed that the man Hodgson should have played there instead out of those available to him was Manchester United man Phil Jones.
“Phil Jones is one of the most adaptable players we have in our country and where was he? When we need to take the ball from midfield, run 40 yards with it and put the other team on the back foot, he is the man for the job.
“Instead, we stayed cautious and Jordan Henderson was used instead. That’s not a criticism of Jordan, he is a different player to Phil, but I thought it showed we were being too conservative.”
As a teammate of Jones, it is fair to say Rio’s knowledge of him at close quarters certainly gives an insight which us observers do not as to his capabilities, but we’re sure fans will be evenly split on his suggestion.
20-year-old Jones played a variety of roles for Manchester United last season, the majority at right-back, followed by centre-half – where he played for England under-21s last summer – and then in central midfield too.
His biggest games in centre-midfield came in the 1-1 draw at Anfield, and memorably for England against Spain in a 1-0 friendly win at Wembley in which Frank Lampard netted the winner.
It is difficult to know where his best position will turn out to be long-term, but it is an interesting assertion of Rio that he should have featured more for England.
We suspect that even if Jones had featured, even from the start, the result in the quarter-final would have been the same – Italian domination.
Let us know if you agree with Rio- Should Jones have been played in centre-midfield over Henderson?
image: © nasmac
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