Fantasy Premier League

L'il Mikey Owen - Great Move

Fri Jul 03 04:03PM

So, you're Sir Alex and you're just coming off of a season where you've lived through three (OK, four) strikers (you have to include CRon as a striker) complaining about playing time and generally making your life miserable.  Looking at their resumes, you can't really blame them.  The World Player of the Year.  The "Best English Striker of his Generation", The big summer acquisition, and the high profile South American with the big reputation.  Throw in some up-and-coming youngsters and you really have some selection headaches.

Assuming you really didn't have a choice about CRon leaving - you can say anything you'd like about his attitude, etc. but you don't let him go for any amount of money unless you don't have a choice - and you didn't really try too hard to keep Carlito around you really have to figure that a decided change of strategy was in order.

Now, imagine further that you're pining for days gone by when you could actually compete with Real Madrid for players (or at least that's the way you remember it).  You remember that you had two well-defined starting strikers (Ruud/Saha, Ruud/Rooney, Ruud/Ole, etc.) and a third striker who knew his role and wasn't going to agitate if he didn't start every match.  This generally tended to be a formerly top-class striker on the downside of his career realizing that he was no longer capable of playing 90 every day.  That said, these guys were still very capable of being extremely effective in spot starts plus a more regular dose of 20 or 30 minutes cameos off the bench.  Sherringham, Cole, and Ole all evolved into this role.  The alternative has been a young guy on the way up (see Forlan, Diego; Rossi, Guissepe). 

Why do I mention this? Well, obviously because of the shock and surprise that seems to be coming from all quarters about the seemingly inevitable arrival of Michael Owen at Old Trafford.  Should we be surprised? No, no more than we would be with Wenger recruiting a new continental 17 year-old attacking midfielder.  This is what Sir Alex does.  It's the formula that has always worked for him.  He has his two de facto starting strikers - Rooney and Berbs - his up and coming options in Macheda and Welbeck and his crafty veteran available when the stage is perhaps a little to large for the youngsters to be counted on.  

How does this not make all the sense in the world? It maximizes Owen's chances of being effective by not putting too much pressure on him to try to play 90 minutes on a regular basis.  He can avoid the shame of lacing them up for the likes of Hull or Stoke.  It fits SAF's formula.  And even more importantly, the price is right which leaves SAF all that CRon money to buy an actual midfield.

Are ManYoo clearly the choice to win the Premier League now? Not at all but that has everything to do with the lack of a right wing, attacking midfielder, and holding midfielder and nothing to do with the lack of striking options.  We haven't heard much about David Silva recently - might want to spend some of that extra money to give Valencia an opposite number.  I'd suggest Robben but he doesn't seem like a SAF kind of guy (injured too often, moody, quiet, etc.). There are a wide variety of Dutch central midfielders available as well (Sneidjer, van der Vaart, etc.) who aren't likely to see a minute at Real this season.

If you put an improved midfield behind Rooney, Berbs, Owen, Macheda, and Welbeck then you might really have something.

What am I saying? I'm a fan of this move assuming that he can find some midfielders who want to play in England.

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