Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard: We need fewer foreign players to help England team

Steven Gerrard supports a Premier League quota system restricting the number of overseas players in English football – but not at the expense of the elite foreign talent.

Gerrard says urgent action is needed to ensure England managers have a broader pool of players to choose from, arguing too many average players have been recruited from abroad.

“There has to be some kind of rule put in so that the pool becomes bigger, even though we need to keep bringing the quality players in,” Gerrard, the former England captain, said.

“I’m not one for stopping the foreigners. We have the best league in the world and that’s because it’s littered with the top players. But we have to have a halfway house where we still get the best players but the pool of English players grows. That will help the English manager and help the team. I don’t think we need a rule where managers have to play a certain amount of English players but there should only be a certain number of foreign players allowed in. We can’t just have a free for all.

“If only a certain amount are allowed in then managers would be under pressure to only buy the really good ones. It is frustrating to sit there and watch a foreign player playing knowing that there is an English player sitting on the bench who is just as good. I have seen it at Liverpool for years.

“It’s very difficult for Roy [Hodgson] or any England manager to pick from the current pool,” he said. “Something needs to be addressed to make it bigger.

“I’m on the outside now so that I can comment on it a bit more. I miss playing for England, I miss the games, but my opinion is that this problem needs to be addressed sharpish if we want the England team to be successful.”