RIO FERDINAND: Premier League imports are the key to England flop

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Steven Gerrard is a great professional for club and country but as a captain of a team who crashed out in the manner England did, he’ll have a nightmare summer. I say this from experience.

The England squad arrived back in the UK in midweek to enjoy what’s left of the break. I suspect it will be a long, hard holiday season for Gerrard.

He’ll be on the beach or around a pool somewhere, still trying to shake off the end-on-season headache of what happened to Liverpool. And now there’s the disappointment of Brazil to ponder too.

Top pro: Steven Gerrard is one of the best professionals in the English game

Fun in the sun: Gerrard relaxes on holiday with his wife Alex

One moment the holiday is bliss. The sun’s shining, everyone’s enjoying themselves, you’re starting to unwind. Then - bang! - a nightmare recollection of a particular incident invades your brain and won’t go away.

I've been there, trying to get away from the misery of losing a Champions League final, an FA Cup final, the Premier League title, whatever tournament England had just been knocked out of, and on and on.

Losing is part and parcel of a footballers’ life but the moment it stops hurting you probably need to pack it in.

Haunted: England's players will have flashbacks to their World Cup nightmare while they are on holiday

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But the hurting does mar your time ‘away’ from football. You’re never really away. One moment you’re sitting there thinking yes, I’m with my family, surrounded by the people I love, in paradise on a beach somewhere, then it hits.

The flashbacks. The defining moments of the season where you lost whatever you lost. The poor decision you made in a particular game. The chance you missed. The goal you conceded. I could have done better. I could played smarter. Question after question.

Then one the kids splashes you and says get in the pool and you snap out of it, for a while.

The only way to make a positive from these negatives is use the depressing thoughts of failures past as fuel for future success.

The new season won’t come soon enough for Gerrard. He’ll want to go again, put the bad stuff behind him.

I’m sure that he, like me, is still wondering why so many England players can’t replicate their club form in an England shirt. And why can’t we handle the pressure?

The answer to both questions lies partially in the brilliant foreign players across the Premier League.

All of our best club teams in England have a significant number of brilliant foreigners. So the English players alongside them are assisted. It’s no coincidence that you play better as the quality of the players around you increases!

But at club level it’s also the foreign players, mainly if not exclusively, who play the truly ‘under pressure’ roles. By that I mean footballers comfortable on the ball who can keep it, comfortably, and use it, meaningfully. I’m thinking of Oscar and Eden Hazard at Chelsea, Valencia and Nani at United, Cazorla and Arteta at Arsenal, Toure and Silva at Manchester City.

Ball player: Eden Hazard has shown how good he is at keeping the ball for Chelsea

Keep ball: Ross Barkley plays well under pressure

Frank Lampard is a Chelsea great and he’ll often pop up with a goal, of course. Ross Barkley and Adam Lallana can keep the ball and use it, and all three are English, albeit two of them developing youngsters.

But with so many of the best foreign players, holding and relieving pressure on your team-mates comes as standard. It’s the norm for them. They do week-in, week-out and they get used to it. By and large England don’t have those type of players, certainly not enough of them with enough experience. And when the pressure it as its greatest, on a World Cup stage, that's a problem.

Rio Ferdinand is an interviewer, programme-maker and football expert for BT Sport