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"What is Owen doing for us"?

Thank you Psycho for finally asking on the telly  :respect:

It's been something that I've been wondering about for a while....

Yes, as I say on the thread I have just posted...it looks like Rooney behind Crouch to me, they linked up well

Owen had a poor game but was on at least a par with 8 other players...

For whatever reason he has not linked up well with Crouch (wrong service, match sharpeness blah blah) I'm sure he'll thrive if dropped and coming on to an open game with 30 mins to play.

Do not forget. Class is permanent, form is not - If England do want to win the world cup they will need a firing Owen. A 'firing' Crouch will not be enough.

Owen was awful. To be fair only 2 or 3 of them actually had a good game. Lampard was having a shocker too.

With the others though you can at least tell they are fit. Owen is playing in another timezone.

Crouch - 6 in 9 for England, what more can he do?

Crouchaldinho and Rooney for me. I'm gutted to say that as a fit Owen would be much better.

Owen hasn't played great but he is still a great player.  I just don't think Crouch is the man to be in partnership with him.

And Crouch and Rooney haven't played together - this is the World Cup and not the time for experimenting, that should have been done in those sham games over the last season...

Dare I suggest Owen and Rooney together! I think Crouch is more than capable of doing a 'job'. But he is not going to win the thing, like the other two can.

Tactics sucked here IMO
He (swedish chap) feels the need for change and brings Owen off, FFS YOU MUPPET, HE'S THE BEST STRIKER IN ENGLAND!!!!
Let's leave Crouch on, he must convert one eventually, afterall he's had a gazillion touches because we've been pumping the ball at him all day, law of averages says he gets lucky.
Ok nice one, hang on we need to make room for a right winger, lets take off the left winger cuz all he's done all day is embarrass their right back, took the piss actually, mullered him as it happens, made him look like a total moron, we can do without him because we still have the high ball into the box for the tall chap.
OOoooOOOO look an inspired decision to leave the tall useless chap on because he eventually had a touch right, i'm a hero, next game lets do exactly the same.

FFS Owen made that advert for Asda to go with the world cup ....

What more do you want from him ??  top goalscorer   ;goodvevil;

ungratefulls   ;tk;

Crouch 6/9 for his country.

Owen - crap at present.

Simple really.

i thought owen was shocking today, how many chances did he miss, along with Lampard.

Best player on the park IMO was Terry

Terry was somehing else.

4 of him on the park, a shed load of penalty practise and you might take the cup without having to score a goal.

IMO, Terry was MOM ::)

I take offence by that statistice... At least 4 of those goals are against teams tha he should have had 6!

I don't have time to search for Owens record but It is a hell of a lot more impressive than Crouch's (which is different for the ratio)

Owen created the chance for clear lampard (in a game of 4 or 5 clear chances a good return), and pulled into channels well. The headed chance he had was poor, and the rebounded shot off keeper came to him too qucik I don't think he could have done anything - the important point is that not even Rooney can offers us the positional sense of a striker like Owen.

IFM - good post.

Both the Cole's, Terry and Lennon can take positives from the games.

We won't talk about whether Crouch should have had his goal disallowed & a red card.... ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJrHkMc5_J8&search=crouch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJrHkMc5_J8&search=crouch)

Gerrard yet again showed his uncanny ability to pull a fantastic goal out when needed. Wish he was Scots

At this point in time players have to be selected on current form and Owen does not justify a starting place.  Also, the combination of Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard (individually each are great players) does not work.  It is time to pick the best "tream" and not the best players which imo means dropping Lampard.

Neither Crouch nor Owen and strike at the moment (so what he has a few goals in his last games, look at how many shots he has had!!)

Switch to 1 upfront with Rooney and that will give more room for Gerrard to come foward from the midfield.

I like the idea of playing one up front as we could then bring in a holding midfielder allowing Gerrard and Lampard to both play their natural game, but I'm not sure whether Rooney is the man to play up front on his own.

He normally likes to come deeper. He links the midfield to the attack and the dynamic of the team changed completely when he came on yesterday.

It's a tricky one and to be honest I'm not sure what the best formation is.

It's true rooney is better deeper, but the attick midfield role is very well covered in the England squad, the striking role is not! I think he would be the best player in that role.

Its all irrelevant because non of this is ever going to happen! (under Sven at least)

I'm not disagreeing that Owen is miles better than Crouch usually, but on present form he should be dropped. He is playing horrendously and any attempt to deny this is ridiculous.

I agree with this.

Gerrard plays off the front for Liverpool and Lampard is great when not worrying about defending. These two working well is the key for me.

Again it isnt going to happen and we'll never know if it would have worked well

I'm not denying he's playing poorly... I doin't think on present form Crouch is playing well either. He cant hold the ball up and the only merit for him being there is one header.

 I'd still go for Owen on the basis that he has shown on previous injury comebacks he needs time. He is like an investment and if he plays a couple more games the investment will be fruitful.

Striking partnerships are all about how they wprk together - we are now going to go into the latter stages of the worlds biggest tournament with an untried and unproven front line - dangerous if not suicidial!

Which begs the question why on earth did Rooney come instead of Defoe!

Crouch's present form is good though. There is no better thing to look at than goals per game. Maybe he should have scored 6 in some games but the fact is he is scoring - Owen isn't. That's really all there is to it.

Crouch at present is scoring goals and linking play. Owen is doing absolutely nothing. It's no choice.

As for the 4-5-1 idea Sven has said he WILL play a holding midfielder Vs top teams.

I wouldn't say that Rooney came instead of Defoe. If anyone came instead of Defoe it was Walcott.

Personally i would have brought Johnson and Defoe. Good players and in the case of Johnson (i don't know about defoe) firing in the goals week in week out.

So which two would you have left out then ?

The player who has never played top flight football, and the guy with the broken foot.

On another note, the diffrence in class between Argentina and England is something else eh?

just went to have a bet on them on betfair given this performance, WOW that price has dropped some.

It's called a knee-jerk reaction in the market, the market will readjust again by tomorrow.

light years apart.

Having said that, we're argies bogey team and they absolutely hate playing us at the moment...

I think if you took a world 11 and told Argentina they had to play them the Argies would all go and back themselves for a 3-0 destruction.

Italy looked very strong. Italy can beat the Argies.

The Czechs have a chance against anyone.

I hope so!

Italy have the defence, the attack and the strikers.

Czechs have lost Koller, and their defence is relatively weak compared to the big boys

Crouch+Rooney up front for the win?

Rooney and Owen for me, Cole on the left wing and the spurs kid on the right (minds gone blank).
Has everyone forgotten that the Argies played against a VERY poor team?

heres one for yah


seeing how a cole is doubtful why not go three at the back  terry ferdinand and carragher?

this gives us 5 in midfield, one holding to protect the defence and spray the ball around. this releases gerrard n lampard to attack at will.

left side joe cole right side aaron lennon. and my holding midfielder....................david beckham, hes played there before and has the passing ability and with such a strong back 3 its worth the gamble imo.

up front rooney and owen, its time to ditch the long ball and get passing again.

This would only work with wingers who defend so it'd have to be Beckham and Cole for me. Nice idea though.