England's Golden Generation: Michael Owen explained why they failed | OneFootball

Michael Owen’s record as an England player is top notch.

The former Liverpool and Manchester United striker played 89 times on the international stage and bagged 40 goals – including a hat-trick against Germany in a World Cup qualifier.

Owen was part of England’s fabled Golden Generation, alongside the likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard.

How England failed to win a major trophy with so many world-class players in the team remains a mystery to this very day.

The Golden Generation under Sven-Goran Eriksson’s leadership weren’t even able to reach the semi-final stage at a tournament.

Where did it all go wrong? Well, Owen himself gave his thoughts on the matter in the build-up to England’s last-16 match against Colombia at the 2018 World Cup.

He bemoaned the formation used during his time as an England player and even boldly claimed that Beckham should have been used as a right-wing back.

Owen wrote in a Daily Mail column: “I look back on my time with England with so many regrets. Many of my team-mates do as well.

“Primarily that centres around the system we played. We were made for 3-5-2, with David Beckham and Ashley Cole as wing-backs.

“Now I’m watching a team play that system…Watching England play has been a chore, pretty much an unenjoyable duty for years.

“I would include in that much of the time I played for them, even though, at the time, you don’t realise it… But we played a system that never allowed us to thrive.”

“If ever there was a case for football being about systems and not players, it was the England team between 2000 and 2006,” he added.

“With a different system you would have seen a different type of performance. We were playing as though we were shackled. But at least we had the tension of quarter-final shootouts.

“Since 2006, England have been painful to watch. It’s been laborious football and no joy to it. Suddenly there is hope.”

Beckham at right-wing back is something which probably would not have worked, but Owen’s issues with the formation are certainly warranted.

Eriksson’s obsession with using Gerrard and Lampard as a two-man central midfield partnership in a 4-4-2 ultimately cost England on the big stage.

It also robbed fans of seeing the very best of Paul Scholes, who was annoyingly deployed as a makeshift left-winger to accommodate the aforementioned duo.

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