Michael Owen really doesn’t make it easy for himself.
The BT Sports pundit hit out at The Daily Star recently, accusing the media outlet of falsely attributing quotes to him.
The damage is done but at least the Daily Star are man enough to admit their mistake. pic.twitter.com/3WnwEGMyAG
— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) February 12, 2016
The Daily Star corrected their mistake, and rightly so as Owen didn’t make the comments in question.
However, there’s no excusing these comments from the former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker.
Owen has questioned the form of Roberto Firmino – Liverpool’s most in-form player.
“I’m split on him,” Owen told the Liverpool Echo.
“I thought he did great against Manchester City and Chelsea away earlier in the season, but for a player with that much quality I just want to see that kind of performance on a more regular basis.”
Here’s Firmino’s rating over the past six Premier League games, according to football statistics website Whoscored.
Pretty convincing, right?
If we combine the ratings for the Brazilian’s previous six games, and divide the figure by six, Firmino’s average rating per game is 8.12.
However, according to Owen, Firmino needs to develop more consistency in his game.
“At the moment it’s maybe one good performance in five or six,” the 36 year old said. “He gives the ball away too much, and I don’t see that real angry streak in his game.”
“He’s done well lately,” Owen said, (after just saying Firmino only has one good game in five or six, despite the player being in great form since the beginning of January).
“But to be a Liverpool player you have to do it every week. You can have one bad game in five, but at the moment he’s more one good game in five.”
Again, if we look at the stats, Firmino has had just one poor showing in the last six Premier League games, away to Leicester City in Liverpool’s 2-0 loss.
According to Whoscored, he was the best player on show for three of those six games.“He’s got a lot of quality, but we need to see it more regularly.”
However, Firmino has been statistically Liverpool’s second best player this season.
Owen would probably say “lies, damn lies and statistics,” looking at these ratings, but they make a clear case for Firmino being Liverpool’s best player at the moment.
If that didn’t annoy Liverpool fans enough, Owen also appeared to refer to the club as “we”.
“Look, Liverpool aren’t going to win the league this season, so in that sense there was no need to make signings in January so we could have a big push,” the former Manchester United striker said.
“Whether we finish 10th or eighth, seventh, whatever, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about the cup competitions and building for the future.”
