Rio Ferdinand has criticised England manager Gareth Southgate for playing Harry Kane in a way that doesn t suit him at Euro 2024.
Kane failed to make an impact on Sunday s European Championship final as were beaten by Spain 2-1.
Three Lions boss Southgate substituted the striker in the 61st minute, turning to , who showed energy up front but couldn t make the same impact off the bench he did against the Netherlands last Wednesday.
Speaking after the match, Southgate explained the decision to hook his captain.
“I mean, look, Harry’s led the team brilliantly, but we’ve had a few that are a little bit short of their physical peak, I think,” he said. “And we’ve been battling with that all tournament, really.”
The Bayern Munich superstar scored three goals at Euro 2024 to share the Golden Boot with five others but his overall performances in Germany were a huge disappointment.
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Manchester United legend Ferdinand does not think Southgate played to Kane s strengths at Euro 2024 after starting him in a role that doesn t suit him .
“When he s been at his best he s had two flying wingers either side of him at Spurs and at Bayern Munich and teams that play the ball forward and have runners that are a threat in behind,” Ferdinand said
“You need to play your players in their best possible positions that suit them and benefit them.
“I ll give you examples of two players. Kane I think he s played in a position after scoring 40-something goals for Bayern this season and he s played in this team in a way that doesn t suit him.
We can talk about how good or bad he s played, but you need to play to people s strengths and if you switch that over to [Marc] Cucurella, who was ridiculed by his own supporters at Chelsea, who comes here and is arguably the best left-back in the tournament because he was played to his strengths and he was given pictures that suited his game.”
Southgate has received lots of criticism in recent weeks but during his analysis of the game, former England striker Alan Shearer was quick to point out the sorry state of affairs when he took over in 2016.
He said: “Let’s look at the bigger picture, when Gareth started off England were in big trouble remember that Iceland result. He’s dragged them from the very bottom to nearly a team that can be successful.
“But we had that three years ago, we have a better team now and a better squad now so expectations are higher. You’ve got to cope with that unfortunately and get over the line, getting to finals when you’ve got this quality of player and not winning it is not going to be good enough.
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