GARY NEVILLE believes England’s Golden Generation should have adopted a different formation… and dropped HIM.
The Three Lions promised a great deal during the early 2000s with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, David Beckham and Paul Scholes.
Yet despite an impressive pool of talent, they were knocked out at the quarter-final stage in three successive major tournaments from 2002 to 2006.
Dubbed the “Golden Generation” in spite of their disappointing performances, they rigidly stuck to a 4-4-2 formation.
But ex-England defender Neville believes they should have switched to a 3-5-2 instead.
And in an XI he named on the latest episode of The Overlap, Neville even replaced himself with Beckham at right wing-back.
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His team consisted of David James as keeper and a back three of Terry, Ferdinand and Sol Campbell.
Cole and Beckham would then be utilised as wing-backs either side of a midfield trio of Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard.
An the prolific duo of Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen would remain up front.
Interestingly, 10 of the 11 players Neville named started three of England’s four games at Euro 2004.
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The only personnel difference is that Ferdinand did not go to the tournament, while Neville was selected to play on the right of a back four.
But the formation switch represents a much-changed side from the 4-4-2 England were known for throughout the reigns of Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello.
Roy Hodgson began to move away from that tactical structure, before Gareth Southgate moved to a back three for the 2018 World Cup.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
