That sort of player can lift a team, make other people great That's what I tried to do. So Sven has got another big call, but if it benefits the team he has to do it."Another big call would be for Ferdinand to operate in front of England's back four, as Ledley King did so efficiently against Poland. "This is not new, we did it to good effect with Gareth Southgate when I was playing. Rio can't do that at Manchester United, at the moment they haven't got two other centre-halves. He gives everything, and other players see that and it rubs off.
From his position you can see the pitch, you can drive the team He has inbuilt leadership. And to show that Roy Keane is not the only one with trenchant comments about Manchester United, Adams used a media session at the Swindon headquarters of England sponsors Nationwide to dismiss Alan Smith as a disaster in midfield and Mika?Silvestre as a poor defender whose selection by France for the World Cup would do England a favour. "Beckham is needed in the England team," he said "His distribution is fantastic There is not a better crosser of the ball in the world But as a leader, Terry would be the man. Looking at the Prozone statistics, he covered more ground in that match than any other player."It remains debatable, however, whether he works any harder, or is even any better in the air, than Charlton's unlucky Darren Bent, who has now reverted back to the Under-21s, along with Kieran Richardson, for their European Championship play-off matches against France.. Never known as a shirker of tackles or opinions, Tony Adams has called on England's manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, to take away the captain's armband from David Beckham and award it to the Chelsea skipper, John Terry. Adams, the former Arsenal and England captain, also urged Eriksson to shift Rio Ferdinand from defence into a midfield holding role in Saturday's friendly against Argentina in Geneva and to build the team and tactics around Wayne Rooney, permitting him to attack from the deep as Paul Gascoigne once did. "I should like to have him in the World Cup squad," Eriksson said "He's very special. Note the "maybe", Joe, even after 27 international appearances.Votes of confidence with a place in the squad will be awarded today to David James, Wayne Bridge and Peter Crouch.
Crouch is not the most elegant football player in the world, but against Austria he did a very good job for us. I know he's not a big goalscorer yet but he can give you a lot of other options He will score goals. James has responded well since being dropped after his wretched performance as a second-half substitute in Denmark, holding his hands up (rather than letting the ball through them). The plan was originally to give Chris Kirkland his international debut at last as a substitute, but he is injured once more. Bridge is fit again, though Eriksson also has West Ham's left-back Paul Konchesky in mind.The Swede is not affected either by any of the doubts assailing Liverpool supporters - and perhaps the player himself - about Peter Crouch, the non-scoring striker. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard can both do it but they are not very keen to, because they both want to to go forward." Doing so at the same time has been a problem in the past, but Eriksson believes that pair can operate successfully against weaker opposition in a flat midfield four, playing in between David Beckham and "maybe" Joe Cole.