Bertrand hoping to outshine England competition

There is stiff competition for the left-back position with
England, but Ryan Bertrand is hoping to establish
himself ahead of his rivals.

Ryan Bertrand is hoping to establish himself in the left-back
position for England but acknowledges there is a lot of
competition for a regular role.

The Southampton man featured in defence as England secured
their ninth win in as many games in Euro 2016 qualifying with a
2-0 triumph over Estonia on Friday.

With regular contenders for the left-back position Luke Shaw
and Leighton Baines absent due to injury, Bertrand is hoping to
seize the opportunity and stake his claim for a spot in the squad
for next year's finals in France.

However, he admits there is a lot of competition and therefore
can only focus on trying to provide performances of a
consistently high standard.

"There are a few of us in there: myself, Luke, Leighton,
[Kieran] Gibbs, even [Danny] Rose and Aaron Cresswell at West
Ham," Bertrand said.

"There are a lot of us vying for that place. It's about putting in
consistency and when we get the chance, we take it.

"I think, first and foremost, when you get here, you do want to
perform well.

"But also the position is one that, at club level, is about
establishing that consistency within the Premier League and
then hopefully those performances are recognised."

Bertrand was included in the PFA Premier League Team of the
Year for 2015, but missed the start of the current campaign
after undergoing surgery on a persistent knee problem.
The left-back felt he made the right decision to miss pre-season
but is keen to take his comeback slowly.

"It's good to be back playing, having been injured over the
summer," Bertrand added.
"This is my third game back [on Friday] so the lungs are feeling
it. I need to ease myself in and be sensible.

"The operation was something I had planned from January
onwards. It was killing me, to be honest.

"It was something I wanted to get done as soon as possible, so
I could limit the amount of games that I would miss, rather miss
than December or January times, which we all know is a very
important period in the Premier League."

England travel to face Lithuania in their final qualifier on Monday
aiming to finish the campaign with their 100 per cent record
intact.