Home Premier League Chelsea Ashley Cole has to fight for place, says Hodgson

Ashley Cole has to fight for place, says Hodgson

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England manager Roy Hodgson has warned Chelsea defender Ashley Cole that he must fight for his starting-spot in the side and also fight for his spot on the plane for Brazil next Summer.

Despite being England’s left-back for over ten years now and also becoming one of the best wing-backs in world football, Cole has come under a lot of pressure in recent years due to the rise of Everton left-back Leighton Baines, who is trying to knock Cole out of the first team.

Not only is the 32-year-old losing his place in the England set-up, he has also been recently dropped by Jose Mourinho as well at club level as the Portguese manager has chosen Cesar Azpilicueta at left-back for the last two matches, despite him naturally being a right-back.

In his press conference, Hodgson admitted that no spot is guaranteed and he also revealed two younger wing-backs who could push out Baines as well as Cole.

“I’m still very happy to consider Ashley Cole as a potential English left-back,” the England manager said. “But the competition for that spot is particularly fierce because Baines is also playing well and on top of that we have Kieran Gibbs and Luke Shaw, two younger players who I think can definitely put these more senior ones under some pressure.

“I would definitely not be concerned, if there were no Ashley Cole or Leighton Baines, about Gibbs or Shaw playing.”

“I will use one in one game and one in the other,” Hodgson added. “They don’t know yet which game one is going to play in.

“I do have enormous faith in both of them. I think they are fantastic quality players and when they get on the field, it’s good they play 90 minutes.

“I don’t think there would be much point in playing them for 45 minutes.”

Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles

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