Mike's Blog

I have previously gone on record with my opinion of Sven-Göran Eriksson and do still believe that England would be better served by his resignation. However, this time round, it looks like I'm in 100% agreement with him.

Around this time yesterday, it had been unofficially confirmed that Saturday's match between England and Austria would see a central defensive partnership of John Terry and Rio Ferdinand. I had issues with this. I do not like, and never have liked Rio Ferdinand. My impressions of him as a man are incredibly negative, his inability to accept blame for his idiocy in missing that drugs test was unbelievably arrogant, his contractual arguments with Manchester United over the summer were disgraceful, and what's more he thinks he's a lot better than he really is. Even worse, he also speaks out of only one side of his mouth, which Really Really Annoys Me. Anyway, football.

Despite my dislike of him, I would not disagree with anyone who suggests that, when on form, Rio Ferdinand is an asset to both England and Manchester United. He is a classy ball playing defender who can be relied upon to keep things organised at the back. In recent weeks however, Ferdinand has - by his own admission - been out of form. When Sir Alex Ferguson goes on record as criticising his own defence, you can be sure that Ferdinand had this spelt out to him in no uncertain terms. As the season goes on, Ferdinand will surely improve, but for now, he's a shadow of the player people know he can be. So the very idea of choosing him ahead of Sol Campbell was mystifying.

It would now appear that Eriksson has done a complete u-turn, and has told the entire squad that it will be a partnership of Campbell and Terry that is to start against Austria. It's what England need, and might even be a further kick up the backside to bring Ferdinand back to his best form. It was the World Cup in 2002 which earned Rio Ferdinand his move to Manchester United, and for him to merely be a substitute in Germany in nine months time would cap a miserable two years for him.

Whatever happens, and regardless of form, for England to have four undisputed top drawer centre backs (Terry, Carragher, Campbell and Ferdinand) as well as one who could and should join that rank (Woodgate) can only be good for the game. If only the same could be said about full backs and left sided midfielders…