Owen has no chance competing with Rooney
When we signed Michael Owen in the Summer I must admit I wasn’t too pleased. He had been awful during his time at Newcastle and very much prone to injuries. But as usual, I realized that Fergie’s judgement is better than my own so I didn’t complain too much about it.
To my surprise Owen has proved me wrong. He’s shown that he’s still able to be a fox in the box when the need arises, most notably with his injury time winner against the bitters and his hat trick away to Wolfsburg in the Champions League.So surely after proving how clinical he can be, he was certain to be pushing for a regular spot alongside Rooney some time soon? Not according to Fergie, who has only started him once since his hat trick at Wolfsburg.
Apparently Owen isn’t competing with Berbatov for a place, so it doesn’t matter if he scores more than the Bulgarian. Fergie has revealed that Owen is in fact in direct competition with Wayne Rooney for a starting place, thus completely eliminating any chance he ever had of becoming a regular at United. It’s a good job Owen likes coming on as a sub.
“It is difficult to leave out Rooney. That is the thing because I think Owen is identical to Wayne in the position he plays in terms of being further up the pitch, with Berbatov in the team.
“The combinations are more likely to be Berbatov and Owen, or Berbatov and Rooney. Rooney and Owen together, well then you have to have Rooney dropping in, I prefer him up the pitch a bit more, I must admit.”
Wayne Rooney is our best player, meaning Fergie is never going to drop him. Even when he goes through dry spells he never gets dropped because he’s the type of player who can produce something from nothing at any given moment.
It looks like Fergie’s comments could not only end Owen’s chances of becoming a United regular, but could also end his dream of making it into Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad.
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