Tottenham’s Jenas insists England stand-ins performed well
Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas insists England's stand-ins did well in their defeat to Brazil.
He says the understudies who came in for the stars stood up to the task - despite the result.
The former Newcastle starlet said: "It's invaluable experience. When you play against one of the best teams in the world you learn so much.
"You are against players playing in the Champions League week in, week out. Their formation is different as well."
Jenas, 26, added: "Every player in their team is so comfortable on the ball.
"It makes it tough sometimes to gain possession and do what you want to do with the ball. But we've learnt from it and hopefully if we come up against them in the World Cup finals we'll take what we learned into that.
"A bunch of players who are not regulars were asked to come in and do a certain job. Apart from the goal, I don't think it was a bad performance.
"Yes, they had a lot of possession of the ball but overall the lads can look at themselves and be pleased."
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Results & Fixtures
Matches
| Home | Away | Score | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun May 13th | |||
| West Bromwich Albion | Arsenal | 2 - 3 | 14:00 |
| Everton | Newcastle United | 3 - 1 | 14:00 |
| Sunderland | Manchester United | - 1 | 14:00 |
| Wigan Athletic | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 3 - 2 | 14:00 |
| Manchester City | Queens Park Rangers | 3 - 2 | 14:00 |
| Swansea City | Liverpool | 14:00 | |
| Norwich City | Aston Villa | 14:00 | |
| Tottenham Hotspur | Fulham | 14:00 | |
| Chelsea | Blackburn Rovers | 2 - 1 | 14:00 |
| Stoke City | Bolton Wanderers | 2 - 2 | 14:00 |
Tables
| Team | P | W | D | L | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manchester City | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 64 | 89 |
| Manchester United | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 56 | 89 |
| Arsenal | 38 | 21 | 7 | 10 | 25 | 70 |
| Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 25 | 69 |
| Newcastle United | 38 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 5 | 65 |
| Chelsea | 38 | 18 | 10 | 10 | 19 | 64 |
| Everton | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 10 | 56 |
| Liverpool | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 7 | 52 |
| Fulham | 38 | 14 | 10 | 14 | -3 | 52 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 38 | 13 | 8 | 17 | -7 | 47 |
| Swansea City | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | -7 | 47 |
| Norwich City | 38 | 12 | 11 | 15 | -14 | 47 |
| Sunderland | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | -1 | 45 |
| Stoke City | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | -17 | 45 |
| Wigan Athletic | 38 | 11 | 10 | 17 | -20 | 43 |
| Aston Villa | 38 | 7 | 17 | 14 | -16 | 38 |
| Queens Park Rangers | 38 | 10 | 7 | 21 | -23 | 37 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 38 | 10 | 6 | 22 | -31 | 36 |
| Blackburn Rovers | 38 | 8 | 7 | 23 | -30 | 31 |
| Wolverhampton Wanderers | 38 | 5 | 10 | 23 | -42 | 25 |
Comments (2)
Played well - Yes. Well enough - No. Only one member of the starting line up from Saturday is guaranteed a place on the plane to South Africa and that is Wayne Rooney.
A few others - Barry, Bridge, Upson. Defoe - are probables but no more.
If everyone was fully fit and in top form only Rooney would be in the starting line up and that showed against a virtually full strength Brazil. To contain them to just 1-0 was actually not that bad - and perhaps a worthwhile learning experience for all concerned - especially a certain Italian Coach.
Wake up Jenas. You were rubbish as were most of the team. I'm hoping most of the team playing against Brazil won't be in the final squad.
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