Would you take Owen to the World Cup?

Englands striking options are shit

as much as he does well in the Premiership, Defoe more often than not looks out of his depth playing for England.

Heskey - an international? Jesus

Crouch - just an option for desperation. Stick him on when behind and get it launched.

Originally Posted by Tronics

i say no.

as good as those goals were he doesnt offer anything else to that team.

id rather have Carlton Cole in there as a wild card option.

my 4 strikers would be;

heskey
rooney
defoe
c. cole

Why? What on earth has he ever done to suggest he should be in a World Cup squad? Surely if we're going on this season then Darren Bent has been better and he is at least fit for the next 3 months, anything else and he's basically been shit?

Rooney aside, none of our strikers would get anynear near most squads.

Can you imagine the Spanish fans, the Brazilian fans or the Italians debating which striker to take out of Cole, Bent and Heskey

maybe. i'd seek advice from stan collymore and similarly intelligent brummie morons first.

He doesn't dererve a place. Before this hattrick all the talk was about how shit hes been, the everton game for example.
There are better player, playing better football and in better form than Owen.
His link up play is shit, can hold the ball up, legs have gone, but now he has scored 2 tap inn's, and one admittedly well taken goal, he deserves to be in the squad, some people opinions change very quickly on here.

Originally Posted by Gavp

He doesn't dererve a place. Before this hattrick all the talk was about how shit hes been, the everton game for example.
There are better player, playing better football and in better form than Owen.
His link up play is shit, can hold the ball up, legs have gone, but now he has scored 2 tap inn's, and one admittedly well taken goal, he deserves to be in the squad, some people opinions change very quickly on here.

We're talking about him deserving a place for England, not United. Compare the trophy cases.

Originally Posted by Gavp

He doesn't dererve a place. Before this hattrick all the talk was about how shit hes been, the everton game for example.
There are better player, playing better football and in better form than Owen.
His link up play is shit, can hold the ball up, legs have gone, but now he has scored 2 tap inn's, and one admittedly well taken goal, he deserves to be in the squad, some people opinions change very quickly on here.

This argument doesn't really make sense. Then again, I've steered clear of here til the end of the year.

Yesterday's game was fairly representitive of Owen's career in microcosm.

His link-up play isn't the best, but he 'linked-up perfectly with Obertan for his 3rd goal just as he 'linked-up' perfectly with Giggs for his winner in the derby.

He scores goals. Mostly cus he's usually in the right positions, but also because he's a brilliant finisher who knows where the weak spot is. It's bound to take him the best part of a season to get to grips with playing for United, especially after rotting at Newcastle for so long.

Yesterday's win rammed a whole load of bullshit back down the bullshitters' bullshitting throats, and not just as far as Owen (and Obertan) supposedly being panic buys or desperation buys due to United being skint is concerned. Ferguson knows what he's doing, it's fair to say.

Can't see it unless Defoe gets injured. Even then, I suspect Darren Bent would be further ahead in Capello's thinking than Owen.

I think cappello should take whoever is in the best form come may/june.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thega...on-making.html

If Michael Owen fails to make it into England’s World Cup squad then he has only himself, and possibly some of his advisors, to blame. As a world-class striker he has carved out a brilliant career relying largely on instinct, but away from the pitch his decision-making has let him down.

Rather than enabling him to recapture to his former glories Owen’s move to Manchester United last summer is likely to have the opposite effect, and hasten the end of his career. The 29-year-old has made an impact at Old Trafford as a player of his ability and experience was bound to – scoring a last-minute winner in the Manchester derby and superbly-taken hat-trick against Wolfsburg on Tuesday night – but these dramatic contributions are proving to be the exception that proves the rule. For all his pedigree Owen is viewed purely as an impact player by Sir Alex Ferguson, as a paltry tally of three Premier League starts this season indicates, which is not what he needs at this stage of his career.


Given Fabio Capello’s lingering doubts over his ability to be a team player and a horrendous injury record Owen was always going to be to be up against it in the race to regain his England place, and is now running out of time.

In the summer Owen had the pick of several Premier League clubs who were prepared to build a team round him, most notably Everton and Tottenham Hotspur, but the unexpected interest from United made his mind up for him in an instant. The rationale given at the time was that playing for a bigger club at a higher level was the best way to prove himself, but that theory would only ever work if he was given sufficient playing time. Although he has made an exception for Emile Heskey, Capello’s views on only picking players who are featuring regularly for their clubs are well known, so signing for United was always fraught with risk.

Whereas Owen was always going to struggle to establish himself ahead of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov at United, not least because he has never really gelled with his England team-mate, at club with lesser resources he would have been given far more opportunities to prove his form and fitness. Capello is not the Champions League obsessive that some assume, as is shown by his continued selection of Heskey, Jermain Defoe and several others, and would have had no problem picking Owen if was playing well for Everton in the Premier League. Due to Owen’s miscalculation he will never be given that opportunity.

It is not the first time in his life that faced with a career-defining decision, Owen has called it wrong. His departure from Real Madrid was monumentally mishandled, with a combination of pride and financial considerations leading him to wasting four years of his career at Newcastle United. As Rafael Benitez confirmed to The Times a fortnight ago he would have loved to bring Owen back to Liverpool as the then European Champions struggled to find a reliable goal-scorer, but he allowed himself to be priced out of the market and ended up with nowhere to go, other than St James’ Park. Last summer’s move to United was borne out of frustrated ambition and ego as much as money, but that does not mean the decision was any wiser.

Owen backed himself to become a first-team regular at United, just as he had to single-handedly transform Newcastle’s ailing fortunes, with neither aspiration close to becoming a reality at the moment. The single-minded attitude and supreme confidence that was his biggest strength on the field, may turn out to have been his undoing off it.

What a #@&%!. :£#%&!er:

AS for Spurs and Everton wanted him, reckon he is plucking at straws there as that's the first I have heard those clubs wanted him - Spurs, especially.

I would be loathed to take him to Eastlands for the away leg of the Carling Cup Semi tbh, but we have to.

As for England. They should take him, but only because most of the other English strikers are £#%&!.

Originally Posted by dunk

I would be loathed to take him to Eastlands for the away leg of the Carling Cup Semi tbh, but we have to.

As for England. They should take him, but only because most of the other English strikers are £#%&!.

?

Originally Posted by antonin jablonsky

?

As in I am still not overly happy that he plays for United.

Originally Posted by antonin jablonsky

Why? What on earth has he ever done to suggest he should be in a World Cup squad?

Because he is a top boy init?