Football 365 – A Riposte

Luke Moore – Aston Villa reject, but more damningly a failure at West Brom – has written this piece – http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,13320_5129821,00.html – entitled ‘Is Owen a Relic of a Bygone Age?’. His point being, football has moved on and there is no place for an out and out goalscorer anymore. Ok, it’s probably not that Luke Moore… but we take issue with his less famous namesake.

Michael Owen is a goalscorer – nothing more, nothing less. I am not claiming there is more to his overall game than that because, despite baffling attempts by Kevin Keegan to play him in the hole (and even midfield) he is a predator, a poacher, a fox in the box. Yes, he has lost a lot of his pace, he’s lost that ability to instill fear in the heart of defenders by attacking them with the ball at his feet – but he is still a constant, potent, reliable source of goals.

As his pace has wained, his intelligence, his movement, his footballing brain and his goalscoring instinct have sharpened. He will probably never score a goal like the one against Argentina again – but he will, and does, continue to score prolifically. Look at his record:

26 goals in 64 games for a struggling side like Newcastle is a fantastic record; compare that to Obafemi Martins, still lightening – he has 27 goals in 81 matches, significantly inferior. Pace is not the mark of a great goalscorer. Of course it helps; but Owen is scoring goals without it, and Martins does not score goals with it. Scoring goals is the mark of a great goalscorer – and Owen continues to do that. What he has lost in pace, he has gained in nous, and his goal output (considering the supply) has remained relatively constant.

To go to the heart of Moore’s argument – he not only claims that Owen is on the wane, less effective than he was, but that his entire game, his footballing role – that of the goalscorer – is becoming redundant in the modern game.

A few players I would throw at him that immediately refute that statement; Filippo Inzaghi, still going strong at Milan at the age of 52; Eduardo, darling of the Croatia national side and one of the most exciting strikers in the Premiership; Jermaine Defoe, effectively a poor man’s Owen who has had two multi-million pound transfers in as many seasons; Ruud Van Nistelrooy, record breaker for Man United and sorely missed for Real Madrid; need I go on?

Goals win matches. It is as simple as that – and as long as that remains the case, players you can rely on for goals will remain an invaluable commodity. Owen scores goals for Newcastle – imagine what he could do for United, Arsenal, or even Liverpool.

Players who score goals prolifically and have more to their all round game – Lampard, Gerrard, Henry, Messi – are even more valuable, but the poacher, the goalscorer, the fox in the box, will always be in demand – as long as goals win football matches. And we don’t see that changing any time soon.