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The former England star jotted down the key differences between the game today and back during...
Read More Legendary English forward Michael Owen, who is in India for the Real Madrid legends vs Barcelona legends exhibition game in Mumbai, opened up on the seismic change the modern game has undergone. The former England and Real Madrid star jotted down the key differences between the game today and back during his heyday, noting that the lack of a double-striker partnership to be a crucial alteration to the beautiful game. “The game has definitely changed.
Everybody had two strikers when I was growing up, when I played professional football. Now, hardly anybody does that," Owen said. Owen added that despite sides boasting of multiple strike options in their squad, the profile of the forwards has changed drastically.
“Of course, now not many people have two strikers, the role has changed. The profile has changed, the shape and size of the striker has changed," he continued. “Somebody like myself, I guess, I don’t know where I would fit in today’s game.
Maybe I would have to play in one of the wider areas," he said. Owen opined that the decline in the number of natural No.9 in the game can be narowed down to the changes in the tactical systems in play in the contemporary iteration of the game.
“Profile has definitely changed. There’s just less because of that, because of the profile and because of the way teams play now, there’s just less strikers as well," the Balon d’Or winner said. “I look around Europe and there’s not many natural No.
9s who can score lot of goals. But when we were playing, there was loads and loads of them," the Englishman reflected. “The game has changed a little bit.
Wider players scoring more goals now coming inside, being on their wrong foot," he added. Owen also went on to state that he fancies the older version of the tactics governing the game and tipped ‘old-school’ football to make a return in due course of time. “I prefer the old style.
I think combinations and pairings was great and I do think in time it will come back," the 45-year-old said. “Football is quite fashionable. You know, if one great coach is playing one way, then everybody thinks that’s the perfect way and everybody follows," he continued.
“So maybe in a few years we will come back to having two centre forwards. I don’t know. But yeah, I’d certainly prefer the old way when everybody had pairs," the former Liverpool and Manchester United forward signed off.
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