Looking back to his early days at Nottingham Forest and later Newcastle United, Jenas told the Sunday Telegraph it has been a welcome change. "With me and other players, who had a bit of pace and could get up and down we always found we were quite adaptable. So the manager thought, 'Oh, we can put him on the right or the left or maybe in the middle' -when you're not settled in a certain position it’s not easy."
Instead, it’s been a difficult proposition for other Tottenham midfielders to get a look in since Jenas gradually began to make the position his own with goals against Everton and Manchester United in October. His selection week in week out has also made a mockery of the idea Jol would become the next tinkerman with so much midfield talent at his disposal.
Ahead of Tottenham’s trip to the Reebok Stadium tonight, Jol said in The Sunday Times: "We have the talent and we’ve started a spell, but to make it a good season you have to compete at places like Bolton."
Indeed, player and coach will be hoping Jenas can continue where he left off at Old Trafford after only narrowly missing an opportunity to take his tally to three in three matches. If his long range effort against Arsenal nine days ago had gone in it would surely have been on a similar quality scale to the free-kick he struck past Edwin Van der Sar in the Manchester United goal the week before.
Jenas explained that his aptitude for set pieces began to develop at Newcastle where keeper Shay Given wanted the 22-year-old to hit them day in day out to give the Irishman practice. "I enjoy taking them and if you look at Lamps [Frank Lampard], he's probably got three goals from free-kicks already this season. It's another opportunity to score," he added.