Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere accepts there can be no guarantees in the fight for selection to England's World Cup squad.
Three Lions manager Roy Hodgson used the friendlies against Germany and Chile, both of which ended in defeat at Wembley, to assess some of his options, as Southampton duo Jay Rodriguez and Adam Lallana made their senior debuts, along with Celtic goalkeeper Fraser Forster.
Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson and Arsenal left-back Kieran Gibbs returned to the international fold after a long absence, while Everton's Ross Barkley and Tom Cleverley, of Manchester United, were given a chance to prove they are worthy of a ticket to Brazil.
By the time England meet up again for their friendly against Denmark in March, Hodgson will have more of an idea of his provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup, which is set to be named on May 13.
Wilshere, who faces plenty of healthy competition in midfield, maintains producing the goods week in and week out at club level will be key to hopes of making it on the plane next summer.
"That is where you are going to get into the England World Cup squad - by playing well for your club, then you are going to get picked for your country," said the 21-year-old, whose impact has been limited somewhat by injury again this season.
"You have seen over the last couple of months that the talent there is, even in the Under-21s, with Ravel Morrison and all these players coming through. You are never guaranteed and cannot rest on your laurels.
"You are only as good as your last game, they say, so when the time comes, I have to be on top form and there will be a lot of players looking to be as well."
Wilshere continued: "At club level, there are a lot of games, so we are not thinking about the World Cup at the moment.
"Once March comes, the World Cup will be just around the corner and then it will be fresh in our minds."
England will not be among the top seeds for December's World Cup draw and so could find themselves facing a challenge just to progress through to the knockout stages.
Wilshere, though, is not overly concerned by any talk of a potential 'Group of Death'.
"You have to take it as it comes," he said.
"If you want to win the World Cup, you have to beat the best teams. There are some good teams in pot one and in pot two, so we will all be watching when the draw comes."
Wilshere feels England can learn from the disappointment of successive home defeats, which was a first at Wembley since 1977, and came following the highs of beating Montenegro and then Poland to qualify for the World Cup.
"We had two good results last month, so we cannot be too hard on ourselves now," he said.
"We always have a meeting about the last game and so we will watch this one when we meet up again (in March) and will go through the positives again, the negatives again.
"We will not want to lose again at Wembley, that is for sure, so we will be ready for that game when it comes."
Source: PA
