Filed under: Manchester United, Leeds, Carling Cup, Champions League, Premier League, Football
Followers of Michael Owen's Twitter account will know the former England striker spends more time helping his daughter with jigsaws than he does on the pitch for Manchester United these days.And yet when he does pull on a red shirt he is more than capable of winning a match, as Leeds found to their cost in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night. Owen scored two in a comfortable 3-0 win.
"The pressure is on," he revealed. "You don't get many chances and when you do, it's like you have to perform or it could be another couple of months before you see a pitch again.
"So it's nice to prove to yourself and everyone that you can still contribute and play well.
"I'm 31, but I've still got a few years left in me. There are different roles you have throughout your career and I'm doing that.
"One goal was a bit of a mishit and then one was as sweet as I hit them really. It's always nice to score. That's what my game has been about all these years. You also try to contribute in other areas, but I was pleased with my goals.
"We're coming into a good part of the season now. The games are coming thick and fast so hopefully the games will be shared round a bit."
Or perhaps they won't. When it comes to the important games Owen knows Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez are nailed on as starters, Dimitar Berbatov is still ahead of him (unless he makes his Elland Road switch to centre back permanent...) and Danny Welbeck has emerged as the man who could be the next big thing at Old Trafford.
"He was fantastic," Sir Alex Ferguson said of Owen. "His ratio of goals per games is unbelievable. His second goal in particular was fantastic. I was really pleased for him.
"He's still one of England's best finishers. Unfortunately for us, he's had one or two injuries and with Welbeck, Hernandez, Berbatov and Rooney, he's not getting the games he deserves.
"It's just unfortunate for him. Nevertheless, he's a fantastic player to have around."
Michael Owen, the manager's dream. Fair enough but does it say something about Owen's own ambitions that he is prepared to be such a peripheral character at a big club when he could be a vital cog in a smaller machine?
True, he was bought by Newcastle to be just that and didn't enjoy it at all and it's his career after all. But the other side of that coin seems to be that Owen has admitted that Fabio Capello was right to decide he was a spent force at international level rather than busting a gut to prove him wrong.
Of course, the young Michael Owen's success was based on his ability to out-pace defenders, an attribute that was denuded by injury and age, so perhaps he knows better than anyone how many games he can manage in a season, and at what level.
But one start since January? It still seems a waste to most England fans, if not those at Manchester United. For the former it would probably be better if they never saw Michael Owen at all. For it is just too painful recalling what he had before and what then never came to pass after 2006.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/09/21/michael-owen-reminds-everyone-of-what-they-have-been-missing/
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