English football doesn't have an identity: Rio Ferdinand

Manchester United veteran Rio Ferdinand has claimed that English football, right from the junior level, lack a recognizable identity, as the national team haven’t been able to win a major trophy in the past 47 years.

Concerns remain over England’s future after the U-21 side failed to gather even one point in the European Championship finals in Israel.

United defender Ferdinand, who appeared in 81 matches for England, has called for a complete change in the mindset of the players before the management can ask for major trophies from the team.

“If you watch Italy, Holland, Spain or Germany playing at youth level, you would know who they are without looking at their shirts,” Ferdinand told Sky Sports.

“There is an identity with those teams. They have a DNA of the way to play.

“We don’t have that. When we won the World Cup in 1966, we didn’t copy anyone else. We played the way England play. It was our style and our identity. Have we kept it? I don’t think so.

“It is all right saying you have some of the best players in the world but you have to put them together and play within a system that works.”

“The question I would ask is; are these coaches telling young kids to pass it to someone who already has a man marking them.

“Are they saying ‘he has to learn how to deal with it?’ I don’t know if we are. You give it to a young Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German kid, he will keep that ball until there is someone to pass it to.

“He won’t just kick it away and say ‘you shouldn’t have passed it to me’. That is the way they are brought up.”