Old maverick, genius-type players are disappearing: Owen

Mumbai: There is still an aura around Michael Owen, and a vast fan following wherever the former England striker goes. It has been no different in India this weekend. On Sunday, Owen featured in a ‘Legends Faceoff’ exhibition fixture between former Real Madrid and Barcelona stalwarts. He donned the white of Real, for whom he played in the 2004-05 season.

But for a player considered one of the best strikers of his generation, Owen, 45, asserted that had he been a present day professional, he would probably not be allowed to feature as a centre-forward. His club career ran from 1996 to 2013; For England, he played from 1998 to 2008, becoming the then youngest player for his country.

“The game has changed, the role of the striker, the profile, the shape and size of the forward has changed,” Owen, now a TV pundit, said at a media interaction on Sunday. “Somebody like myself, I don’t know where I would fit in in today’s game. Maybe I’d have to play in one of the wider areas.”

Owen, who began his career at Liverpool – with whom he won the Ballon d’Or in 2001 – was a pacy and prolific striker who joined Real Madrid in 2004 for one season, during the Spanish giants’ Galacticos era. However, during his playing days, teams usually had two strikers, unlike today’s trend of fielding a lone No.9.

“I look around Europe and there are not many No.9s that can score a lots of goals,” he said. “Everybody had two strikers when I was growing up and playing, now hardly anybody does. Wider players are coming in and scoring more goals now.

“I prefer the old style. I think combinations were great and I made my name playing with Emile Heskey. We had some great pairings growing up, now it’s just one player.”

A part of the change, Owen explained, is the trend of teams following the philosophy of a coach who achieved success with a certain style. Current Manchester City coach and former Barcelona player and manager Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka style ushered in a wave of teams attempting to copy the quick-passing, possession-based game.

According to Owen, not many teams have managed to repeat that style.

“Everybody sees a great manager and their success and feel they have to copy that. Certain teams are not capable of (doing that) in many ways,” he said.

Because of the new style, he said, teams are becoming more driven by data, which has made the sport a bit more monotonous.

“We are in a period where people love to have possession, they love data, love the stats, workout a lot of their team’s shapes and styles through data analysis. It is becoming a bit of the same,” Owen said. “With football, it’s always nice to have two different styles, which contrast and then you tend to have better games. It’s a much more athletic game now. It’s as important to be a good runner as it is to have skill, which was never the case (in my day). There were those old maverick players, those genius type players that are slowly disappearing from the game.”

Some of those old mavericks lined up at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai for the legends match on Sunday.