Then FA chief executive Adam Crozier coined the term ‘Golden Generation’ following England’s 5-1 World Cup qualifying away win over Germany in 2001.
But at the 2002 World Cup it was the Germans who reached the final in Japan and England, who were without the injured Neville and Gerrard and with Beckham only “75%” fit,, external were knocked out in the last eight by Ronaldinho’s freak free-kick for eventual champions Brazil.
Still, during the early 2000s, England’s midfield – at least on paper – was as good as any around.
But were the system and tactics? Under Sven-Goran Eriksson (and later Steve McClaren and Fabio Capello) England stuck rigidly to a 4-4-2 formation with Beckham on the right.
Gerrard and Lampard, who struggled to dovetail, were paired centrally and Scholes, who the Swede regarded as his “most talented player,” was shunted left.
Speaking to Ferdinand, Gerrard said there should have been a way to deploy all three centrally, while Neville suggested pivoting to a 3-5-2, external could have brought glory.
Realistically, would it have made a difference?
In addition to the mercurial Ronaldinho, Brazil’s star-studded squad featured Cafu, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos and Lucio to name but a few. France could call upon Zinedine Zidane, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Lilian Thuram and Robert Pires.
Meanwhile, Spain fielded Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Xavi, Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos.
So, while England had the luxury of great players, other leading nations did too.
“The elephant in the room is that, in those tournaments, there were other teams who were simply better than us,” said former goalkeeper David James on BBC Radio 5 Live.
James, who won 53 caps for England, added: “They can stop you from being your best and you can lose. If you want to blame egotistical players, you’re probably missing the real issue – which is that sometimes, other teams are simply better.
“We just weren’t good enough. It’s not that we didn’t have great players – we absolutely did – but when I started thinking about the lack of connection within the squad, it became clear that something was missing.”
