Rio Ferdinand believes that the England national team may need to replicate the approach taken by many of their European rivals and sacrifice short-term success in order to establish themselves a long-term identity.

The Manchester United defender, formerly a Three Lions captain, retired from international football in May after earning 81 caps and playing in three World Cups.

Speaking ahead of Roy Hodgson's side's friendly against Scotland on Wednesday, Ferdinand has accused the entire England setup of lacking their own recognisable and consistent playing style.

"What is our identity?" Ferdinand said. "If all the names were taken off the back of the shirts and the colours were changed, you couldn't go in there and say, 'that's an England team, that's our identity, that's the way we play.

"That's from the U16s right up to the senior team. Whereas you look at an Italian team, a Dutch team, a Spanish team, a German team or a Brazilian team, without seeing the names on the shirts, you would identify them because they're working from a script.

"You could put an U16 lad into the senior Spanish team or Italian team, he might not have the attributes in terms of physique and speed to be able to deal with it, but positionally I'm sure he'd know what to do because that's what they're taught, day in, day out.

"I just don't think you see that connection between our [senior] team and the U21s, or the U17s and the U20s team and the senior team, and I think that doesn't bode well for the England team."

Ferdinand believes that qualifying for upcoming major tournaments should play second fiddle to addressing this issue, which can only be achieved through a strong long-term plan.

"It's going to take someone to come and grab it by the scruff of the neck and say, 'This is what we're going to do and we're going to take 10 years to do it,'" he said.

"We might not qualify for a World Cup or a European Championship but I would rather not qualify for one or two tournaments knowing that in 10 years' time we will have an identity that everyone can identify with and say, 'yes, that's us', and be proud of."

Here, you can read Sports Mole's preview of the clash between England and Scotland at Wembley.