England vs. Montenegro: Leighton Baines Creates More Chances than Ashley Cole, Says Jagielka
After Ashley Cole sustained a rib injury on Sunday against Norwich, Leighton Baines has been given the nod by England boss Roy Hodgson to fill the void at left-back.
Phil Jagielka was excited for the opportunity given to his teammate, who has been performing extremely well for Everton.
"He has been fantastic for us at Everton, player of the year for the last few seasons," Jagielka told independent.co.uk.
"But unfortunately for him, the person he has tried to nudge out of the way has also performed very well, particularly in an England shirt. Bainesy has had to be a little bit patient."
Baines has been a one of the focal points in creating chances on offence for the Toffees. He has as well helped them in obtaining three clean sheets and scored two goals for himself in the Premier League.
"It was widely publicised he was one of the leading chance-makers in the three divisions," he said.
"Maybe we rely more on Bainesy to create chances than Chelsea would with Ash. He has fantastic quality delivering the ball but he is also a very clever footballer."
"Let's hope he has a fantastic game on Friday. If a free-kick comes around we have people desperate to take it but not selfish. We can assess which specialist we need to use."
Jagielka believes in that, above anything, national pride will be the key element to their success.
"We are a proud nation. We expect our team to go out and give any a game and beat most people," he added.
"That's the way we have been brought up. The biggest thing for us is it would have been a disaster if we had gone there [the Ukraine in the previous qualifier] and lost. We went there to put on a performance."
"We knew a point would be good enough to put us in the driving seat. We need to put both aspects of our game together. With the players [we have] in the squad it looks very positive."