FORMER England captain Rio Ferdinand wants to see the “arrogance and confidence” of Cole Palmer in the team at the Euros after Gareth Southgate’s side made a shaky start to the tournament last weekend.
England beat Serbia 1-0 thanks to Jude Bellingham’s goal but were unimpressive for large parts of the encounter.
Southgate brought on Palmer’s Chelsea team-mate Conor Gallagher and Jarrod Bowen in a right-wing role as the Three Lions were put under pressure defending their lead. Bowen set up Harry Kane with a cross for what looked certain to be a second goal but Predrag Rajkovic brilliantly tipped the captain’s header on to the crossbar.
Bukayo Saka started on the right of the attack in a 4-2-3-1 formation and was taken off for Bowen as Palmer stayed on the bench.
Ferdinand would also like to see Crystal Palace attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze get a chance.
“I’d have brought Palmer on,” Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel. “Because he’s got that arrogance and confidence to go get on the ball and say, ‘give it to me, I’m going to start ticking us’. What he does at Chelsea is the same thing.
“The only problem is if Gareth brought on Palmer he wouldn’t have said that. He wouldn’t have said go and get loose and be why I brought you in.
“I’ve watched him at Luton for Chelsea, he’s picking the ball up off Thiago Silva. No one can pick him up because the person meant to be marking him is playing left-back 70 yards away so can’t get near him. England needed a bit of that. ‘Go on off the cuff and get us the ball back, we’ve lost a bit of rhythm’. Where is that talk? ‘Eze, you go on there.’
“This is what they do for their clubs. That’s why they’re here. Go let them do it.”
