Ferdinand is playing out of his skin. His skills and experience have been incredibly valuable for United. Can managers ever swallow their pride and for the sake of the country say their were wrong?
Hodgson cocked this one up royally. Basically he backed the wrong horse and when that horse put himself out to pasture in the hope that the FA would back down and not ban him for racial insults Roy was left with the headache of having to establish a completely new central defensive partnership. Cahill and Smalling did OK in the last game but they are no Campbell and Ferdinand.
He's definitely more than good enough for England, the question is more is he fit enough. The main aim of everything Hodgson should be doing right now is to ensure we do as well as possible in Brazil in 2014, and that requires a settled back four, or at least settled CBs. I very much doubt Rio will be fit enough to play potentially six or seven games in three weeks by them. The last thing you want is Rio playing the group stage, then being unfit for the next round, we bring in a replacement with little game time and we're ****ed. It already happened in the last World Cup, Rio and King both pulled out injured and our defence was a shambles, with Terry and Upson not having a clue. Definitely not something to risk repeating, particularly given how much Rio is likely to play for Utd this season.
United's performances are more important to me than England's. If Rio not playing for England is better for United I'm all for it. Hodgson made a calculation about number of matches and he may be right. Rio is currently the best English CB
I agree Jagielka is currently the best English CB, Cahill is the one I don't get, I honestly don't think he's been that great, he's dangerous from attacking set pieces but defensively he worries me. Smalling may be a bit inexperienced but I think he has a big future with England, as does Caulker (I would probably put Caulker just ahead of Smalling at the minute), but I think both of those guys need a leader alongside them and I don't think Cahill is that man, it has to be Jagielka in my opinion.
I agree that Jagielka is a good CB but I think that in terms of big match experience ferdinand is better. His reading of the play and control and distribution of the ball out of defence is better and if fully fit I would pick him over Jagielka every time.
I think Ferdinand is a great defender, but for England I completely understand leaving him out, it's time to give the younger players the international game experience they badly need to be ready for the big tournaments, Ferdinand can still do a very good job for United, but in an international Tournament (which is still a long way off) the games come thick and fast, would an older Ferdinand really be worth the risk, or should England do what Germany did and give the younger players their chance to show what they can do?
