Jagielka: I'll fight to keep out Rio and JT

Phil Jagielka is determined to win an England place for keeps.

Everton defender Jagielka will start in Switzerland tomorrow night after his hugely impressive competitive debut against Bulgaria at Wembley.

Jagielka admits he will have his work cut out when Rio Ferdinand and John Terry return to full fitness for next month’s round of Euro 2012 qualifiers.

But Jagielka insists his goal is to convince Fabio Capello that he should stick with a winning line-up by helping overcome Switzerland.

Jagielka said: “It’s always hard to displace players like JT and Rio. But I would like to think I can. If Rio and JT come back fit for the next squad and they are in form and they get picked, they are not bad players to be behind.

“But I’d like to put real pressure on them, that’s what it’s all about and I’m sure the manager wants that as well.

“The manager has always said he wants to pick form players, so if I can keep playing international football and keep keeping clean sheets then, hopefully, it cranks up the pressure a bit.

“The Switzerland game is massive. We’ve got the win against Bulgaria now, which takes some pressure off, but we will go to Switzerland with the same mentality.

“We want to go and win that and qualify in style again. Hopefully, the boys up top will stay in good form and keep scoring goals.

“The build up to the Hungary and Bulgaria games was a little bit negative. But we had a bad World Cup, we keep brining it up, we keep brining it up, but there’s nothing we can do about it - it’s gone.

“The Bulgaria game will give the England fans and everybody connected with the team something to look forward to with this qualifying campaign.”

Jagielka will be in the centre of England’s defence but will start with a new partner after Michael Dawson was ruled out for up to eight weeks after injuring himself against Bulgaria.

Gary Cahill is in pole position but Matt Upson was upset at being left out. What is certain is that Jagielka is now the man in possession and that is a huge bonus for him after overcoming his own injury problems with Everton.

Jagielka, who also started against Hungary last month, came back from a serious knee injury which meant he ran out of time to get into the World Cup squad and preparations for the Bulgaria game were also blighted by an ankle problem.

“I was definitely surprised to get a chance against Bulgaria, especially as we had quite a few other options there,” admitted Jagielka.

“I was absolutely delighted when the manager named the team. I’ve started two games in a row now. It’s a first for me and, hopefully, I will keep going.”

Jagielka suddenly found himself a man in demand this summer as Arsenal had two bids turned down by Everton.

But Jagielka is optimistic about his future and also that of the England team after their win over Bulgaria got them off to a good start in the Euro 2012 qualifying campaign.

Jagielka added: “It’s nice, obviously, for a club like Arsenal to be linked with me. But nothing happened. I stayed as an Everton player and I love playing for Everton.

“We have not had the greatest of starts to the season, but I’m sure we’ll pick up. It’s nice, nice to get two England starts and be linked with one of the big boys.

“We were a little bit nervous before the Bulgaria game and there was a little bit of pressure. We had a fantastic qualifying campaign last year and the boys want to do the same thing this year.

“The manager just said before Bulgaria: ‘you’re a good team, now go out and prove it.’ It’s pretty simple. We looked like a team, we weren’t a bunch of individuals. The score line proved that.

“Jermain Defoe got off the mark after three minutes and as soon as he scored the pressure was off. There was only going to be one winner after that.”