l4chat

First things first, and even though he plays for Manchester United, I have to admit that Rio Ferdinand is a fantastic central defender. There’s no arguments from me there. 

But, when Fabio Capello’s regular leader John Terry is ruled out of action for his country, I find the decision to appoint Ferdinand - who is not even captain at Old Trafford on a regular basis - stand-in England skipper a strange one to say the least.

Many of you may now point to the fact that this is a Liverpool blog and that of course I will side with one of our own. But it’s not out of loyalty to Stevie that I’m questioning Capello’s choice of stand-in skipper.

My personal preference when it comes to picking a captain for any team is that the leader of the team should be someone who can drag the team forward when things aren’t going great. Can Ferdinand provide that type of inspiration? Well I can’t remember - off the top of my head anyway - too many occasions where the central defender has dug either his club or country out of the mire when needed. Solid yes, match-winner?  I don’t think so.

Which brings me onto Stevie. Has he proven for club and country throughout his career that he’s the man for the big occasion, or indeed the man who can dig you out of the preverbial s**t? The answer - yes. Anyone remember Olympiakos, Istanbul, West Ham in 2006…or even Middlesbrough on the opening day of this season? And for England, what about Trinidad & Tobago (2006 WC), Andorra (2007 ECQ) or Germany (5-1, 2002 WCQ.

On the contrary, I’m not saying that Ferdinand will do a bad job as skipper, I just think if things are going wrong on the pitch, Gerrard’s your man! Rant over! 

 Picture Taken from Google Images

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