Is Owen A Good Partner for Rooney?

Despite Rooney breaking his three year duck with England by scoring in the 3-0 victory over Estonia, there is lingering doubt over the effectiveness of Owen playing alongside Rooney.

The England midfield pairing dilemma of Lampard-Gerrard has been solved with Gareth Barry being installed as the mainstay. He has brought a new balance to the midfield and in this match, he repaid the faith of his supporters by giving another solid performance and allowing Gerrard to roam forward.

The same cannot be said of Rooney-Owen pairing. Rooney reasserted himself in this match after a long international hiatus but Owen was barely in the action.

Both did not have much interplay and one-two passing was negligible. Against a better team which allows them less time on the ball and played a suffocating style, the lack of telepathy between the two strikers will be England's main stumbling block.

For much of the match, England played the long ball and that exposed the inadequacies of the partnership. The team sorely needs a physical presence to latch on to the high balls. Owen can be forgiven for being annoymous as he is still recovering from a surgery. It was a big relief to England that Rooney got onto the scoreboard and Estonia was not a threatening team.

England are now second in Group E behind Croatia and are almost certain to qualify. A draw against Russia in their next match would suffice. Getting a win would be the best result as they qualify with a game in hand. With the current form of the strikers, scoring in Moscow may not be so easy though.

Injuries to Terry and Ashley Cole may also hamper the team's chances and McClaren will have to struggle with fitting Lampard into the team when he recovers. Lamps was booed when he came on as a sub in the final 20 minutes.

McClaren is riding on a high now and Soccer Pundit does not think he should jeopardise England's chances by letting Lampard feature at all. As for Owen, he can still play in the first XI since there are not many good strikers around but choosing the right partner for Rooney is critical if England were to advance further.