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Arsenal's Jack Wilshere prefers roles as attacking midfield to defensive one

Arsenal's Jack Wilshere has admitted he prefers to be deployed as an attacking midfielder rather than the defensive-minded role he's been handed by England manager Roy Hodgson for the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

Hodgson has singled out Wilshere for a role at the base of his midfield, with his performance in the opening qualifier against Switzerland last week drawing criticism from some.

Yet Wilshere was back to his best as he scored and turned in a dynamic display in a more attacking midfield berth against Manchester City on Saturday and he said he is more at home in that kind of position.

"Naturally, I want to go forward more," Wilshere told reporters. "You saw with England that sometimes I lost a bit of concentration when I do go forward, but in our formation it's nice to play forward and in the England one it's different.

"I'm happy to play either. In the formation we play, I should be scoring more goals. We play with one holding and two going forward and I'm one who gets forward. Hopefully that will be one of many."

Meanwhile, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes Wilshere is now back to his best after a host of injury problems, and he hopes his display against City was a sign of things to come.

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"When you have his talent, the most important thing is to go on the pitch every week and show how good you are," Wenger told the Arsenal website. "He works on it [his finishing] and I believe for a long time he didn't kick the ball well [in front of goal] because of his ankle problem.

"He looked dangerous in the first half as well because he has found his pace back. That for a while was not the case so I'm very happy. I've always told him the best way to answer your critics is on the pitch and he did it."