Euro 2024: ‘England were on a leash’ - Rio Ferdinand critical of Gareth Southgate’s ‘negative approach’ in final defeat
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Published 14/07/2024 at 22:21 GMT
Rio Ferdinand said England players looked “a shadow of themselves” after they were beaten in the Euro 2024 final by Spain and bemoaned the fact it seemed to take them going a goal behind in games to produce the kind of form they regularly display for their clubs. England lost a second straight European Championship final under Gareth Southgate, with speculation set to ramp up over his future.
England's head coach Gareth Southgate speaks to England's midfielder #10 Jude Bellingham during the UEFA Euro 2024 final football match between Spain and England at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on July 14, 2024.
Image credit: Getty Images
Rio Ferdinand was critical of Gareth Southgate’s “negative approach” after England were beaten 2-1 by Spain in the Euro 2024 final.
After a drab opening period in which Spain dominated the ball, it took Nico Williams’ opener 70 seconds into the second half to spark The Three Lions into life.
Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins entered the fray and the former equalised to set up a thrilling final 20 minutes.
But after drawing level at 1-1, England appeared to revert to the conservative tactics that saw them scrape their way into the final before Mikel Oyarzabal struck in the 86th minute to seal a deserved victory for Spain.
The postmortem began immediately after the final whistle, with Ferdinand questioning why it takes a setback to bring something like the best of England’s star-studded squad.
“It feels like England were on a leash,” Ferdinand told the BBC. “That’s the disappointing thing with the quality players we have in this squad.
“Until we go a goal down, we wake up and we go on the front foot and start pressing high, and we make teams nervy, but it seems we have to wait until we go a goal behind to do that.
“The top teams, they get control and they are aggressive from minute one and take games off of opponents.”
He added: “I think every England fan that watches or is in this stadium will be sitting there going, ‘why have we waited to go a goal behind until we let the shackles off and start going at them?’
“It wasn’t really until Ollie Watkins came on and started pressing from the front and hurrying the two centre-backs, who I said at half-time had had cigars out for most of the first half.
“We started hurrying them and then all of a sudden Cole Palmer comes on the pitch and slots one home, but we’ve had to wait so long, why have we had to wait so long to be on the front foot and be aggressive when we’ve got such quality players all over the park?”
Southgate’s seemingly defensive approach throughout the tournament has drawn raised eyebrows given he is in charge of a squad that contains the likes of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka and Palmer.
Bellingham came into the tournament off the back of winning La Liga and the UEFA Champions League with Real Madrid, while Foden lifted the Premier League last season and is a vital cog in Manchester City’s devastating attack.
Yet under Southgate, Ferdinand believes they have looked like a shell of themselves.
“Whenever any of these England players have won things with their clubs, one of the main reasons is because – they’ve got the quality, etc – but they’re all brave in the big moments,” the former England international continued.
“They’re courageous and take risks, they take chances, they don’t wait to go behind. They take chances at moments when the game is in the balance and it’s most difficult and when you win stuff, you have to have that courage and just lay it out there.
“Roll the dice at times. You can’t always play from a conservative position.”
“If you’re going to play on the conservative side of things, you have to win. Otherwise it will be dissected and looked at as being quite a negative approach and that falls on the manager.
“He sets this team out in a particular way to play and that’s his style of football, but you have to win playing like that because these players are too good, they play too well for their clubs, to come here and look a shadow of themselves.”
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