THE question that used to be asked of the Michael Owen-Wayne Rooney partnership was whether there was a better one in international football but, as they line up against Sweden tomorrow, the priority for the two strikers is to demolish a stack of concerns.
Thrown into his first start since fracturing his right foot, Rooney must prove that his fitness is as good as the England camp have claimed. If not, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s team are in trouble because the Manchester United striker is regarded as the antidote to most of the failings in their opening two World Cup matches.
He is certainly regarded as the cure by Owen, whose place in the starting XI has been questioned by Sir Bobby Robson and Terry Venables, two former England managers. Having been hauled off twice before the hour, the Newcastle United forward had reason to be concerned that the present England head coach had also lost faith, but he has been buoyed by the news not only that he will play in Cologne , but alongside Rooney.
The return of “Wazza”, as his team-mates call him, restores England’s most potent match-winner and the one player who can glue the rest of the side together. “He is very important, a fantastic player and that type of link player between the two strikers and the midfield that we need,” Eriksson said.
“We saw when he came on (against Trinidad & Tobago) that maybe he is not 100 per cent, but he kept the ball up there and did some very clever movements and clever passes.”
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On the training ground, the coaches have been emphasising the need for patience and ball-retention. With Rooney back, there are reasons to hope that we have seen an end to the long, diagonal balls that have earned England minimum marks for style along with maximum points.
Owen is more hopeful than anyone that England will start playing with more variation and imagination. Glenn Roeder, his manager on Tyneside, spoke yesterday about the striker “fighting for scraps off Peter Crouch, which doesn’t suit him”, an analysis that might have come from Owen’s mouth.
“It is simple,” England’s leading goalscorer said. “We have not been getting the ball in the right areas. I am totally reliant on my team-mates in that respect. If the team are firing on all cylinders and playing well and getting players into places where I come alive, then you’ll see a different me.
“If we can get someone just behind me or in midfield with their head up, then I come alive. You would think there would not be as many longer balls because obviously Wayne and myself are not that tall. It may encourage players to keep it on the deck a bit more.”
Playing Rooney and Owen means no place for Crouch. After five goals in four matches, the Liverpool striker can feel hard-done-by, but he is on a booking and, in any case, Eriksson is right to give his two leading strikers the opportunity to answer questions over form and fitness. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard are also on bookings and, wisely, Eriksson has already decided to rest the Liverpool captain in the final group match with a place in the last 16 assured.
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Owen Hargreaves will replace Gerrard in the starting XI and Jermaine Jenas is also on standby to come on for Lampard as early as Eriksson dares to make the change. Hargreaves will hope that a start in his favoured position will help him to win over sceptical fans.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic seems certain to be missing for Sweden because of a groin injury in a game that England need only to draw to top group B. A win would be uplifting, and a goal for Owen more so, although he pointed out that a failure to score would hardly constitute a crisis. “I’ve played 55 minutes twice without scoring, so that is not panic stations,” he said. “It’ s not like a long drought.”
The referee is Massimo Busacca, from Switzerland, who took charge of England’s 1-0 defeat by Northern Ireland last September, when Rooney exploded with frustration and was lucky not to be sent off.