45-year old spoke to Rio Ferdinand this week
Did not mince his words
Plenty of reaction from fans as a result
Despite picking up 114 England caps – the fourth most of any player ever – Steven Gerrard’s international career was always more of a “what if”.
The former Rangers manager made his England debut one day after his 20th birthday, and was part of the squad at Euro 2000. He then scored in the famous 5-1 World Cup qualifying away to Germany, at just 21 years old. However, a groin injury picked up on the last day of the 2001/2002 season ruled him out of the finals.
He was a major part of the failed ‘golden generation’ throughout the 2000’s. One of the biggest talking points of that era was how him and Frank Lampard could not play together. The consensus was that England should have played with a defensive midfielder next to either Gerrard or Lampard, rather than playing both together.
Earlier on this week, he appeared as a guest on the Rio Ferdinand presents podcast, where he said: “I think we were all egotistical losers. Because I watch the telly now and I see [Jamie] Carragher sitting next to Paul Scholes on this fan debate and they look like they’ve been best mates for 20 years.
I’m probably more close and friendly with you [Ferdinand] now than I ever was when I played with you for 15 years. So why didn’t we connect when we were 20, 21, 22, 23? Was it ego? Was it rivalry?
I think it was down to the culture within England that we were never connected. All in our rooms too much. We weren’t friendly or connected. We weren’t a team. We never at any stage became a real good strong team.”
Afterwards, Gerrard also explained that he, Scholes and Lampard could have all played together. Instead, Scholes was often deployed off the left hand side. He explained: “If you play in the system that a lot of the coaches played, I think someone had to have the courage to say, well, Steven, it’s not you today, or Frank or Scholesy.
Putting Scholesy on the left and me on the right or me on the left, or asking one of us to just be a sitter takes a lot away from us. But I think we could have played together. I think we could have tactically been coached over a period of time for it to work, because I believe we had the football IQ and intelligence to adapt and make it work together.”
Some interesting points made there. It really should not go under the radar just how much Gareth Southgate did to change the culture of the national team. Earlier this week, John Stones said it was a no brainer to join the squad for a warm weather training camp, despite being injured and not in the squad, all because the atmosphere around the national team is so good these days.
That would just simply never have happened under the previous eras before Southgate. Former Wolves striker Steve Bull said he never felt welcome during England camps because he did not play for one of the elite clubs. Again, something that would just never happen under Southgate (nor in this era after his departure).