Exclusive – Darren Anderton: England have gone backwards

Former England midfielder Darren Anderton has told talkSPORT that England have gone backwards in recent years.

Roy Hodgson’s men sit second behind Montenegro in Group H as they look to qualify for the 2014 World Cup after draws with Ukraine and Poland.

But even an 8-0 win over San Marino in Serravalle couldn’t appease the ex-Tottenham star who played 30 times for the Three Lions between 1994 and 2001, scoring seven goals while starring at the 1996 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup.

And he reckons that the tactics of recent England managers aren’t conducive to playing well on the international stage, which is why they’ve not been able to make an impression at a tournament for nearly two decades.

He told the Weekend Sports Breakfast: “I was very fortunate to play in [an England] team that went out and kept possession of the ball and outplayed other international teams.

“I think, possibly, we’ve gone a little bit backwards in recent times. [We’re] a little bit long ball and we give the ball away too much.

“I think we do have good players. I think we’ve just got to play a different way at international level, which is different to our Premier League. We have to accept that.

“I think people like Terry Venables and Glenn Hoddle knew that and were able to get us to play in a certain way and I’m not sure we’ve played that way for many years.

“We’ve got to get to that level where we keep the ball because at international level if you give the ball away it takes five minutes to take it back.

“The more time goes on [without England winning a tournament]. The more people talk about it and the more people expect and at the end of the day we have fallen behind and we probably shouldn’t expect us to go and win a World Cup or a European Championship.

“Last year we played against Italy and we lost on penalties but, if we’re honest, we didn’t deserve to get to that point.”