Michael Owen has denied making critical comments of Sven-Goran Eriksson, before once again blaming the former England manager for the Three Lions' miserable World Cup exit.
The crocked Owen, currently convalescing in the United States, spoke out at the weekend to criticise the handling of Wayne Rooney. According to Owen, Eriksson contributed to Rooney's dismissal against the Portuguese by deploying him in a frustrating lone frontman role.
'I see that some comments I made about our tactics caused a bit of a stir, but I wasn't slamming anyone. Like players, coaches and fans up and down the country, I was simply querying whether we had got the best out of our team - and if not, why not?' Owen wrote in his column for The Times, published on Monday.
'Obviously the 4-5-1 system is one of the issues I raised and every striker in the land would probably prefer two up front. Our best performances under Sven-Göran Eriksson have come with 4-4-2. The manager had his reasons for changing it - and the fact that I was sitting at home, presumably, was quite a big factor.
'We could still have beaten Portugal, but I am not convinced that the way we lined up gets the best out of Wayne Rooney, who is one of our world-class talents. And I am not sure that a defence of that calibre requires the protection of an extra holding player. Those are debates we should all be having if we are going to improve.
'It didn't happen for us and we have to sit down and think why we are not getting the level of performances out of some individuals that you see for their club sides. If I'm being honest, there have not been many stages in my England career when I have thought that we have been maximising our talent. There have been some one-off highlights, but we are capable of so much more.'
