FABIO Capello looks to be doing an excellent job as England manager but there are still doubts over how he regards Michael Owen.
The Newcastle striker has been overlooked for Wednesday’s world cup qualifier against Ukraine, with Emile Heskey, Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Gabriel Agbonlahor ahead of him in the pecking order.
Capello reasons that Owen has not had enough games to be considered – he has played just a couple of times since coming back from his latest injury – and that’s understandable.
But given that he is now fit I’d still have Owen in the squad.
Natural strikers are such a rarity in football. They have an intangible instinct for scoring – they know where the goal is and are usally in the right place when the ball drops in the box.
These natural goalscorers also have an icy composure when it comes to finishing. It doesn’t matter if they’re playing in the Carling Cup or the World Cup, when that instinct takes over nothing will get in its way.
The strikers I have seen that have it are Robbie Fowler, Ruud van Nistelrooy, (Brazilian) Ronaldo and Michael Owen. There are plenty of others that probably have it – Pippo Inzaghe, Raul, Eto’o – but I haven’t seen enough of them play.
Owen has scored some huge goals in his career. The ones that stick out are the stunner for England in the 98 world cup against Argentina, the late double to win the FA Cup for Liverpool against Arsenal in 2001, the goal for Real Madrid against Barcelona in 2005 and the goal against Brazil in the 2002 world cup. Quite a cv.
When it comes to England at the moment, a natural striker is something clearly lacking. For all Rooney’s brilliance I would not put him in the same class as all the afore mentioned forwards when it comes to finishing. Heskey, Crouch, Bent and Agbonlahor are surely not.
So, if I was England manager I would make it my priority to get Owen back into the set up. It might seem a long way off, but the World Cup in 2010 will be on us fairly quickly in footballing terms. The players need to have a sense of who will make up the backbone of that World Cup squad, assuming we get there, and midfielders need to know how to play with their strikers.
Maybe I’m being a bit previous here and Capello is just biding his time – but for me Owen must be in the squad.
********************************************************************************************************************************************
As predicted, the new Brawn GP team cleaned up in Melbourne with Jenson Button back in the winner’s enclosure. It just shows how crucial the car is to the success of Formula 1 drivers. Last season Button’s best finish was sixth, which won him his season ending total of three points. He was usually nursing his wonky car around a lap behind the leaders if it wasn’t already back in the pits broken or crashed.
One interesting quote I saw in the Guardian was from a source at Brawn GP. Talking about the edge the car has on its rivals the source said: “The visual bits are not really the performance drivers, it’s all the surfaces you can’t see that give you the real performance.” Hmm, have Brawn GP tapped in the multiverse…
********************************************************************************************************************************************
Another return to the winner’s enclosure at the weekend was Tiger Woods. It took him three tournaments after his eight-month lay off from injury to lay his hands on silverware – what on earth took him so long? Ominously for his rivals ahead of next week’s Masters, the putting boots have been well and truly laced on.
********************************************************************************************************************************************
Here’s a quick tip for the Grand National. Don’t vote for any of the ones at 200/1 because they would clearly be happier mooching around in a meadow somewhere. There is one called Stan at 100/1 though. Go on Stan.
********************************************************************************************************************************************
And finally in this week’s bumper blog a caption competition. Have your say in the comment box below