MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 14: Michael Owen looks on prior to the Premier League match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Etihad Stadium on September 14, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)placeholder image
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 14: Michael Owen looks on prior to the Premier League match between Manchester City and Manchester United at Etihad Stadium on September 14, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Former Liverpool player Michael Owen has been singing the praises of his one of his ex-teammates
Gerrard played 131 matches with Owen for Liverpool, with the pair involved in 14 goals together. The former stayed at Anfield for the majority of his career while Owen made the move to Real Madrid in 2004 - eight years after making his debut for the Merseyside club.
Owen played 297 games for Liverpool, scoring 158 goals and providing 51 assists. Gerrard, meanwhile, made 710 appearances for the Reds with 186 goals and 155 assists.
Gerrard is revered as one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever players and played a huge role in the club’s 2005 Champions League triumph, which came just under 12 months on from when Owen himself left Anfield.
Owen, speaking to Reece Mennie on his podcast, said when asked if he would prefer to have Gerrard or Scholes in his team: “Gerrard. Gerrard's a freak. Gerrard can do anything. He's just too big and too strong and too fast and too powerful. I mean, he can head it, he can pass, he can score, he can create, he's got vision, he can tackle. There is nothing that he can't do.
“If I'm going into the World Cup final tomorrow, the first person I'm picking alongside me is Steven Gerrard. Unbelievable.”
Owen, however, didn’t quite put Gerrard in the bracket of the best player he ever played with.
Asked who the best player he’d played alongside, Owen continued: “For football quality, it was Zinedine Zidane
“For looking at the past, it was R9. I played with R9 when he was towards the end of his career, but at the start of his career, he's greater than anything I've ever seen. If he had kept that going without injuries, then I think we would have been saying that he's the greatest of all time.
“Those first four or five years of his career, I was a kid watching it on telly and I thought, if that's the level I have to get… I thought I was going to be top, top class, I thought I was going to definitely play in the Premier League, but then I watched him and thought, ‘wow, if that's the level, I am just a conference player’.
“That's how nervous he made me, and there's only a couple of players that made me feel like that. When I watched Henry as well, I thought when he came to the Premier League, I thought that's the last golden boot I'm ever going to win.
“There's certain players that I thought I can do that, I can do that, I can do that. But when I saw Ronaldo and when I saw Henry, I just thought they’re from a different planet.”
Continue Reading