absolutefootball

Now the furore has settled down around the farce that was the Rio Ferdinand selection saga, it gives us time to look at the deeper source of a problem for England the lack of quality we have at Centre Half. 4 or 5 Years ago England had an array of quality choices at Centre Half: Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ledley King and Jamie Carragher to name but a few, all playing regularly for their clubs. The facts are we now are picking from a talent pool that is significantly less than previous years and there is a lack of quality there. There is however another point  to made: that the art of defending and standard of defending in general has dipped, but that is for a different time. Defending in the Premier league this season has been quite alarming at times, yes attacking play has come more to the fore but there has been a significant amount of bad defending we have been witness too.

 It’s also another worrying sign that  the partnership that is likely to start on Tuesday, Joleon Lescott and Chris Smalling have played so little for their clubs this season. Lescott has  played just 20 of City’s games this season in the league and Smalling has appeared in less than half United games this season too.

There’s also Cahill and Jagielka but do we really consider them any better options to Smalling or Lescott. Smalling can’t get into the United team ahead of Ferdinand which is a real part of the problem. The other player with masses of potential at United is Phil Jones, but an injury plagued season this year and his own versatility hasn’t helped his progression. Played at Right Back, Defensive Midfield, the man seen as the natural heir to the Centre Half position at both United and England has hardly any chance to prove himself and Ferguson seems at the minute unwilling to try him in his supposed preferred role.  Outside of Smalling and Jones is there any more centre half’s that realistically could be seen as having a future in the England team? Caulker at Spurs is a fine prospect but again he finds game time at Spurs a problem with Vertonghen and Dawson ahead of him.

You would imagine that judging Ferdinand on this season  alone Hodson knows that Ferdinand is England’s best Centre Half, but that is only part of the story. I don’t  think he was ever a viable part of Hodgsons plans for Brazil he was a mere stop gap due to the amount of Injuries that had decimated the England squad.  Somehow I can’t see Hodgson picking him again of the intricately planned training regime can’t allow him to play 2 games now back to back now how would he cope with the regime of an international football tournament.

From where we once had a position of strength 4 years ago we now come from a position of weakness and what must be worrying for England and for Hodsgon it shows no easy sign of getting better.

By Alex Wiseman

Follow Alex on Twitter: @IamaldoAle

Follow Absolute Football on Twitter

Like Absolute Football on Facebook