Glenn Hoddle can now add teenager Michael Owen's name to his list of genuine contenders for World Cup duty this summer, but the more established members of the squad who sat out the 2-0 Wembley chastisement by Chile were today the ones feeling most secure about their places in the England manager's final 22 for France.

Hoddle, of course, hoped to land himself with a few more selection headaches by fielding an experimental team against the lively South Americans but, Owen apart, he discovered only a plethora of potential discards.

Chile's Marcelo Salas, though, provided the perfect example of the sharp, stylish player Owen can aspire to. His first goal just before half time was an exquisite finish and the way he tricked a sluggish Sol Campbell into conceding a penalty for his second eleven minutes from the end was almost as impressive.

At 23 he looks the finished article already and Manchester United may yet rue the decision not to pay the £12 million fee which will take him instead to Lazio in Italy at the end of the season.

If Hoddle needed confirmation of what most of the 65,000 crowd could have told him already it was that there are still few real challengers to the likes of Alan Shearer, Paul Ince - both chained to the subs bench until the last 28 minutes - Paul Gascoigne, Gareth Southgate and Steve McManaman. "It is a negative result and a disappointing one because no professional ever likes losing," Hoddle admitted, "but in the end it might do us the world of good because it has brought us back down to earth again.

"If there is ever a good time to lose a game then it is now in a friendly rather than in the finals of a World Cup.

"I accept that a bit of human nature comes in. It was not a qualifying match that we had to win and sometimes the right mentality is not quite there in a friendly. But having said that, the players who are out there should surely realise they are playing for World Cup places.

"People look at the ones we kept on the bench against Chile and think OK, so the gaffer is trying something different this time. And, of course, I know, too, that I can field a much stronger side.

"But the thing about these games is not experimentation exactly. It is about trying to bed down people who are capable of backing up the the best players you have in your squad.

"Young Owen did very well as did Dion Dublin, but our passing was not as good as it should have been and our defence was strung out far too often. When that happens you can be severely punished by a technically good side - and we were.

"We've got more games before the finals, Switzerland away in March and then Portugal are coming here in April. I can still try other things and other players.

"But there will be a time when I've got to say the experiments are over and this is how we are going to do things in the finals. I will judge when it is that time, but it is not yet."

This was Hoddle's third defeat in 15 games as England manager and although nowhere near as hurtful as the one by Italy at Wembley a year ago or even Brazil at Le Tournois in the summer, he might have avoided it and kept the fans' World Cup fever at boiling point had in-form striker Andy Cole not woken up yesterday morning with a backache.

Hoddle confirmed that the Manchester United ace would have started against Chile. And there can be little doubt he would have made a better, more mobile partner for Owen than his other ever-willing, but often isolated debut-maker Dion Dublin.

The Coventry target-man fought gamely in an unfamiliar role of trying to link up the attack and received poor service from midfield where Nicky Butt and David Batty could not match their determined ball-winning qualities with penetrative distribution.

But Owen, England's youngest international this century at just 18 years and 59 days, still prospered despite a rare, off-colour display by Teddy Sheringham.

Hoddle said: "Making your debut is always hard but making it at just 18 in the last third of the pitch is very demanding indeed and yet he dealt with it extremely well.

"Even if he hadn't it wouldn't have meant he's not an international class player because there is still plenty of time for him. But he did deal with it and the only thing that was missing from him was a goal. If he had put an early shot and then a header either side of the goalkeeper it would have been perfect."

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