MICHAEL Owen dismissed his Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier's criticism of international friendlies last night as the club v country battle moved into overdrive.
A day after the Houllier revealed he "deplored" friendlies and insisted that players no longer enjoyed them, Owen gave his full backing to Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Although Houllier's anger is aimed primarily at the handling of John Arne Riise by Norway coach Nils Johan Semb, he is worried about Owen and his Anfield teammates such as Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey suffering from burn-out.
Eriksson is in need of allies, with a growing sense of mistrust between the England coach and Sir Alex Ferguson in the wake of Paul Scholes's inclusion in the Manchester United team on Tuesday after he was excluded from the national squad, presumed injured.
And Owen, who is likely to captain England against Portugal tomorrow in the absence of David Beckham, stood four-square behind the beleaguered Eriksson as he spelt out his loyalty to his country.
He insisted: "We all enjoy playing football and want to play in games like this. The international team would suffer if we scrapped friendlies.
"Yes, we play a lot of games in this country for club and country, but every team does that.
"If we didn't have this friendly, we'd be going into a European Championship qualifier on the back of a defeat to Brazil, which we wouldn't want.
"You can understand the clubs putting themselves first but it's not as if we play ten friendlies between every competitive game. I think one friendly between every competitive game is a fair compromise.
"We have a young squad, and we need to play together to gel and to have a better chance of doing well."
Owen's comments received support from clubmate Gerrard, who said: "The friendlies help us improve the team and squad, and get more experience now before the qualifiers come up.
"I regard club and country as having equal priority; I give my all for both."
The Liverpool duo were responding to comments made by Houllier which were triggered by Semb's decision to play Riise for all 90 minutes of a friendly last month.
Houllier, a former France coach, had said: "I and some other top coaches deplore the fact that too many friendlies are a burden for some of the players. The players don't seem to enjoy them any more.
"It's difficult for a player to go into a friendly when he has to play a Premier League game and a Champions League game in the following two weeks."
Owen and his England teammates faded in the second-half of games during the World Cup, most notably against Sweden and Brazil at either end of the Three Lions' Far East campaign.
That would indicate the players were shattered after a long season, and Owen made 53 appearances for club and country in 2001-02, from the Charity Shield on August 12 up to the defeat to Brazil on June 21.
That was in a campaign that saw him miss nine league games and several European matches through injuries, but his commitment to England remains total.
"Whenever I've been fit, I've been here. Gerard Houllier knows the pride that you get out of playing for your country, and to be fair he's always been great towards me," Owen said.
"I can only recall one or two occasions when I've had to pull out of England squads and on those occasions they've been legitimate injuries. "The manager never sends me off with England with orders only to play for a certain amount of time."
Owen reckons England, who had the youngest of the 32 squads in the Far East, will not peak until the next World Cup in Germany in four years' time.
The European Championship, to be hosted by Portugal, is in 2004 and Owen believes England are capable of making a concerted attempt to win that tournament.
But after the progress made by Eriksson's side in the summer, the 22-year-old is confident a rosey future lies in store for the national team. He added: "To reach the last eight of the World Cup isn't the worst achievement in the world, especially with the age of our squad.
"The best years are still to come for this team and they may even be after Euro 2004. We can do well there, and it looks as if everyone is going to come into their prime in Germany.
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