As a man whose mind has been known to wander when facing lesser opposition, Rio Ferdinand may have been speaking only for himself, but the defender's warning that Saturday's World Cup qualifying tie against Kazakhstan could be as difficult as a match against Brazil or Argentina carries added significance. The Manchester United player will captain his country in the absence of John Terry and wants all of his team-mates to be at their best.

Ferdinand's analysis is not as ludicrous as it sounds. Amid the many disappointing results that marred England's ill-fated qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, it is easy to forget that it started to go wrong in a match in which victory had been taken for granted, a goalless draw against the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia at Old Trafford two years ago.

Without that sterile stalemate, Steve McClaren, the England head coach at the time, may not have felt the need to experiment with a 3-5-2 formation against Croatia in Zagreb four days later, leading to a 2-0 defeat that condemned England to playing catch-up.

“That Macedonia game was a stark reminder that we can be celebrating at one point and one crazy result can send things pear-shaped,” Ferdinand said. “Sometimes it's as hard as playing against the big nations because the smaller nations ask you different questions.

“When you're playing against France, Brazil and Argentina, they are hard games, but you expect they will come at you and sometimes that can be easier because there are holes and gaps to exploit. But against the likes of Kazakhstan it can be like coming up against a brick wall and it takes a lot of beating down to get through sometimes.”

One of five survivors from the team who beat Germany 5-1 in a World Cup qualifying tie seven years ago - Michael Owen, who scored a hat-trick in that match, is among the absentees - Ferdinand is also aware of how hard it can be to back up an impressive result, such as last month's 4-1 victory away to Croatia. England scraped a 2-0 home win over Albania four days after the triumph in Munich and required David Beckham's last-gasp equaliser against Greece the next month to secure qualification for the finals.

“After winning 5-1 against Germany we thought we were going to win the World Cup,” Ferdinand said. “Against Croatia you could almost see what headlines were going to be written, that we are going to do this and going to do that. But it is not like that, it is not reality. Sometimes we lose sight of reality with all the euphoria.

“Expectancy levels are different in this game and as a younger player you might think it will be a lot easier. Through experience of playing a lot of games for England you realise that you have to approach every game the same. Maybe that is one of the mistakes we have made in the past. We have not approached each game in the right way and results tell you that.

“One game does not change people's opinions. People expect a better performance from us on a consistent basis and rightly so. It's no good doing it against a team away from home who have not lost for years in qualifiers [Croatia] and then coming home and being unconvincing and dropping points against a team like Kazakhstan.”

Ferdinand's transformation from talented dilettante to a vice-captain who was narrowly overlooked for the top job has been one of the more encouraging developments within this England team in recent years, leaving him in a good position to advise Theo Walcott, the nation's latest teen sensation.

Ferdinand, 29, believes that Walcott's involvement at the 2006 World Cup will be beneficial to the 19-year-old forward, who scored a hat-trick against Croatia last month. “In the last two years he has come out of himself a little bit more,” Ferdinand said. “He has got that confidence, he has got that nice arrogance as a footballer that he knows he has talent. He knows he has good attributes and if he is used in the right way he will almost be impossible to play against.

“He knows what he's good at and Michael [Owen] was exactly the same. I was with Michael the whole time at the '98 World Cup and you just knew he knew that he was a good player and what he was good at. You're seeing the same with Theo now.”

Ferdinand also took the opportunity yesterday to showcase his statesmanlike qualities, condemning Fifa for being soft on racism in light of the £14,920 fine handed to the Croatian Football Federation for the abuse directed at Emile Heskey in Zagreb.

“The football authorities need to look at themselves,” Ferdinand said. “They make a lot of comments and say they are going to do this or that but they never back up the words with actions. Croatia were fined a few thousand pounds. What good is that going to do? They will just keep doing it. If they keep doing things like this you have to take points off them. Then the punters will start thinking if they do it, the team is going to be punished.”