Rio Ferdinand has criticised Roy Hodgson's "conservative" approach and questioned his selection and tactics following England's exit from the European Championship.

Ferdinand previously expressed bemusement at Hodgson's decision to omit him from the squad for this summer's tournament in Poland and Ukraine, where England fell at the quarter-final stage following a penalties defeat by Italy.

The Manchester United centre-half believes it would have been more beneficial had Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Phil Jones been put to greater use, claiming that little has been learned of the younger players ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

"If you take the youngsters to a competition like this, you should get them out there and see what they are made of. I am a fan of The Ox and I wanted to see more of him but in the end he finished up as a spectator. He was almost in the same position Theo Walcott was when he was picked for the 2006 World Cup," Ferdinand told the Sun.

"Phil Jones is one of the most adaptable players we have in our country and where was he? When we need to take the ball from midfield, run 40 yards with it and put the other team on the back foot, he is the man for the job.

"Instead, we stayed cautious and Jordan Henderson was used instead. That's not a criticism of Jordan, he is a different player to Phil, but I thought it showed we were being too conservative. It sends a message to the opponents that you are more interested in defending and playing on the counterattack than making them scared of you. The other thing is that Phil was in the squad before Jordan, who was a standby player.

"I'm reading a lot of stuff about how it's time to get the youngsters in and all of that but you only find out if they can do it when you throw them in there. What did we learn about Alex and Phil at this tournament? Do we know how much influence Alex can have on a game in a finals? He did fairly well against France, so why not persist with him and let him grow into it?

"As for Phil, we will now have to wait until the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, provided we qualify, to see how good he can be at the highest level. Expectations were low so the manager had a free shot to find out about our youngsters and I feel it was a missed opportunity."

Ferdinand, 33, believes the tactics employed by Hodgson did not allow for a great deal of flexibility and highlighted the "damning statistic" that revealed England's most successful passing combination was Joe Hart to Andy Carroll.

"The only time we really kept the ball properly was when Danny Welbeck dropped short to collect it and linked the play. But, usually, he was having to stay up and wasn't allowed to drop too much because we had set out a certain way with a 4-4-2 which didn't offer a great deal of flexibility," Ferdinand added.

"At United we play 4-4-2 but we also change it depending on how the game's doing to 4-3-3 or 4-5-1. It's OK saying we were very good defensively and hard to beat but if you set out to be defensive then that's your first priority. It makes it very hard for the attacking players in the team though.

"I'd love to see us running at other teams. I want to see Alex and Theo and Adam Johnson, who I thought should have gone too, causing problems instead of worrying about covering back as the first thought. And I want us to get Danny on the ball more like he does for United.

"The most damming statistic of them all was that one which showed our best passing combination was between Joe Hart and Andy Carroll. That would have been bad enough if Carroll had played the whole game but it's even worse when you realise he came on as sub after an hour. We are better than that – nobody can be proud of that stat."