Martin O’Neill calls bullshit on Rio Ferdinand’s defender excuses live on BT Sport

"Analysed like a true centre half."

We need to talk about centre halves. It's taken a midfielder in Martin O'Neill to point it out but he is spot on. The Republic of Ireland manager was on BT Sport with Gary Lineker to call Leicester's first ever Champions League game and he went off on a tirade about the excuses defenders make. He's right. Any time any team concedes any goal, you see the centre backs turning around and looking pointedly at someone else in the team as if they should've stopped it. The defenders like to blame the rest of the team for not defending. It doesn't matter what type of goal it is, why should centre backs be expected to fend for themselves? If it was cut off at source - and all that - they shouldn't have to do it. BUT THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE THERE FOR. Martin O'Neill has called bullshit on it.

"Centre halves, I love it," O'Neill said to Ferdinand. "They have an incredible ability to blame someone else for the goals. "I would love it if Alex Ferguson, just for two seasons, stuck you [Ferdinand] in [to midfield] running around."

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubzpfLMoRYg&feature=youtu.be Read more from SportsJOE:

   

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