Go on, blame it on Rio - everyone else is
There has been a consensus across the media and online that Rio Ferdinand cost England the game against Ukraine. His moment of indecision when he failed to deal with a bouncing ball near the halfway line allowing Artem Milevskiy a clear run on goal and was clearly the kind of offence that should encourage a free vote on the return of the death penalty. A weak header in the second half that lead to a snap shot that hit the post was further evidence of his sheer unfitness to wear the shirt. Apparently.
But judging from the headlines it appears that Gordon Brown can rest easy, as a new public enemy number one is on the rise.
Times: Rusty Rio Ferdinand is a worry for Fabio Capello
Guardian: Rio Ferdinand frets over his England place for the World Cup finals
Telegraph: Rio Ferdinand's error message a problem for Fabio Capello
And these were the less-rabid headlines.
Anyone would think that Ferdinand had made a rash challenge and gave away a penalty - or perhaps rashly lost possession on the edge of the box by attempting some kind of rash Cruyff turn before rashly heading the ball past his own goalkeeper or rashly goosing a minor royal. Whatever rashness was involved it has certainly lead to a rash of headlines.
The instant nature of internet based criticism often sets the agenda for the news media, but does everyone have to plough exactly the same furrow? Search google news for:
+"Sergei Nazarenko" +Ukraine
+"Rio Ferdinand" +Ukraine
The first name, in case his name is unfamiliar, is the only goalscorer of the Ukraine vs England game and there are 8 recent news articles that mention him and Ukraine as far as Google News can tell. The second search of news concerning the anti-christ himself pulls out a whopping 1,224 articles.
It becomes self-fulfilling from that point as the same point is rammed home by a million bloggers and beleaguered journos. A match that cost England nothing is made to appear as important as something of some importance. Say a third round League Cup tie or the Europa League final.
I don't think Ferdinand is match fit. He let the ball bounce when he shouldn't have and the Ukraine forward was left with a clear run on goal - but a fair number of England players made mistakes of a similar nature almost without comment. There were enough lame performances to allow the blame the be spread a little more thinly, but there has to be an agenda - and Ferdinand bacame it faster than a Prestatyn go-cart.
As to the idea of dropping Ferdinand. Well it would be nice if there were a large number of credible candidates - or say one really credible candidate. But currently they amount to:
a) Matthew Upson
b) Joleon Lescott
c) Gary Cahill
d) Wes Brown
A set of candidates that are a blend of injury prone, accident prone and inexperienced and anyone wanting to dump the talented Gary Cahill straight into a competitive match without a few minutes to acclimitize as a sub should perhaps remember the experience of Scott Carson a couple of years ago.
As Fabio Capello remarked after the game, Ferdinand made one mistake and although more cleverer people than I is could make the point that "a similar mistake at a World Cup finals may lead to elimination" (Telegraph) the chances are that if you have an experienced and settled back four it will make fewer mistakes that if there are late changes. A bit dull I know, but the facts tend to be a bit duller than the speculation as any passing interest in a transfer window would confirm.
Johnson / Terry / Ferdinand / Cole is the best England back four for a generation, if you want to break that up a few months before the World Cup then fine. But without it England might not even get to the quarter-final (before elimination to Portugal). But even then everyone can still blame it on Rio.
