Is Rio past it?

As Gareth Bale brushed aside Rio Ferdinand to score Tottenham’s second goal during their famous win at Old Trafford, most football fans were beginning to understand why Roy Hodgson continues to ignore Rio for national team selection. The England boss is due to announce his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, and might have been open to the idea of recalling Ferdinand to the national team especially since John Terry has announced his retirement. However, given Rio’s defensive displays last weekend against Spurs, its highly unlikely that will be the case, and former Liverpool great Alan Hansen presents his case. He claims that:

In my opinion, Ferdinand has been the best defender in the history of the Premier League and, while his loss of pace means he is no longer a great player, he is still a very good one.

But Rio’s performance during United’s 3-2 defeat on Saturday, in front of Hodgson, unfortunately highlighted that, just like everybody before him, Father Time had caught up with a player who was once rightly the most expensive defender in the world.

Even though I disagreed with Hodgson’s decision not to take Ferdinand to Euro 2012, when the manager claimed it was a purely football-based choice rather than off-field issues relating to the court case involving John Terry and Rio’s brother, Anton, there can be no doubt that Saturday highlighted the glaring deficiencies that are now compromising Ferdinand’s game.

His loss of pace is the crucial factor and, with United playing poorly at the moment, there is nowhere for Rio to hide his shortcomings.