Soccer Conditioning Drills

One unexpected transfer that took place last Summer was that of Michael Owen, the often injured striker from Newcastle United who made the move to the Red Devils.

Experts were left scratching their head at this decision by Sir Alex. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, the generally accepted view was that a current soccer great would appear in the latest Manchester United apparel to take over for him. Instead, Manchester United got Luis Valencia from Wigan and Michael Owen. A player who, for the past 5 years has had injury problem after injury problem as well as inconsistent fitness and form. The fact that he is a former Liverpool player only adds insult to injury. There were a few bemused faces around Old Trafford the day the deal was announced.

When the details of the deal became known along with Ferguson’s intentions for Owen, it became clear that Alex Ferguson had, as always had a plan. Michael Owen is intended to be used from the bench and is on a pay as you play deal at Manchester United. He would be used to assist from the bench when needed, he would not be the lone striker.

Not the best start Owen would have wanted at Manchester United, only featuring in a few games as a late substitute. However his adoption into the United ranks seemed complete when he came on in the Manchester derby game to net a last minute winner for United to deny City a point at Old Trafford. This goal was expected to kick start more involvement from Owen in the team, their was even talk about a place in the England soccer team if he could find consistent goals.

However since then, it hasn’t really worked out for Owen. Another two goals has given Owen four this season from 18 games, which is not great statically despite the fact that in many games he was a substitute, There seems to be an increasing feeling that Owen’s long term stay at Manchester United is looking shaky.

It seems highly unlikely that Owen will make it back onto the England squad. Fabio Capello’s need for players to be fit and playing consistently makes Owen’s chances very low.Over the past few years Owen  has managed to be neither of these things. However it should be known that Capello doesn’t seem to apply this rule to all of England’s strikers, Emile Heskey it seems is a shoe-in in every squad, regardless of whether he plays for Aston Villa or not.

The high point of the experiment so far has been Owen’s last minute goal against City.Owen needs to find goals and consistency over the remainder of the season or it seems unlikely that Alex Ferguson will continue his experiment onto the next season, much in the way youngster Darron Gibson is doing. The question remains whether Owen has the ability and fitness to earn a spot in next years team, however it seems likely that Sir Alex Ferguson’s gamble, in the long run, may not pay off.