Manchester United striker Michael Owen has revealed his surprise at the low match ratings he has received over the past few weeks. The 29-year-old has been happy with his displays of late, but hasn’t received rave reviews from pundits.

Speaking after scoring in Manchester United’s 2-0 win over Barnsley in the Carling Cup, Owen said that he thought he ‘played well’ after starting against Bolton in the Premier League, but only received a match rating of ‘three or four’ in the newspapers.

Then, after admitting he played ‘pretty average’ against Barnsley on Tuesday, he was surprised to see that he scored ‘seven out of ten’ in some reports. The former Real Madrid man believes that this is because scoring goals is ‘how people judge’ him.

Regardless of how well he plays, Owen believes that unless he scores a goal – he won’t get very good ratings for his performance. Overall, he is of the opinion that he deserved ‘a five in the Barnsley game and seven or eight from the Bolton game’.

Much of the discussion in recent months, of course, has been about Owen being able to force his way into the international set-up once again. Although the player himself said he was only focused on club matters at the moment, he has received support from one of his team-mates.

Jonny Evans said that Owen always ‘gets in really good positions’ when he comes on and that he made the goal against Barnsley ‘look easy’.

As for Owen himself, well maybe he is concentrating on what other people think of him a little too much. He should try and let his performances and goals do the talking. Then, the praise and improved football betting odds will come his way.

» Comments