Paul Scholes was wasted by England who used him as a left winger
There is so much historical revisionism with this one. Firstly, Scholes played the vast majority of his England career as an attacking midfielder. Even throughout the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign, Eriksson played him at the tip of a diamond with Gerrard on the left of the diamond and Nicky Butt as the holding player. However, Scholes went about three years without scoring an international goal by the time of the tournament and Frank Lampard was in great form so Eriksson moved Gerrard into the holding role, Lampard into attacking midfield and Scholes on the left side of the diamond (not the bloody left wing). Clearly it was the right decision as Lampard scored three goals in Euro 2004 and Scholes finally got a goal himself. One of the main reasons for this myth seems to be that from 2006 onwards, Scholes was an excellent deep lying playmaker who England were blind to have misunderstood the talents of, despite the fact that during his England career he had always been used as an attacking midfielder by Ferguson (or, less frequently as a second striker and, yes, even a left midfielder on occasion) and a "regista" was a niche position that was barely even heard of in England. If the "Golden Generation" had come about a few years later when English football wasn't so obsessed with 4-4-2, you might have actually seen a functional midfield comprising some of those great talents.
