SAM Allardyce expects former Bolton defender Tal Ben Haim to be employed as Michael Owen's man marker during Saturday's crucial European Championships qualifier at Wembley.

But despite attempting to sign the centre-half after leaving the Reebok Stadium in the summer, the Magpies manager also expects Owen to win the pair's private tussle and fire England towards next summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland.

Allardyce plucked Ben Haim from the relative obscurity of the Israeli league when he signed him for Bolton in July 2004. Since then, the 25-year-old, who has subsequently joined Chelsea, has established himself as one of the most highly-rated defenders in the Premier League and, on Saturday, he will be charged with the task of shackling Owen as Israel attempt to stay ahead of their opponents in the Group E table.

With the likes of Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch unavailable, Owen, who is almost certain to be partnered by the less-than-prolific Emile Heskey at Wembley, will shoulder the majority of England's goalscoring hopes.

But while he has previously claimed that the Newcastle striker is short of match fitness, Allardyce remains confident that he will come to his country's rescue this weekend.

"I think that Tal will probably be asked to do a man-to-man marking job on Michael as much as possible," said the Magpies boss.

"And there won't be a lot of space because Israel employed a nine-behind-the-ball tactic playing at home, so it will probably be a ten-behind-the-ball approach at Wembley.

"So patience and clever play from the midfield and full-backs will be needed to feed Michael in limited space.

"If England manage to do that, Tal will eventually have a hard job marking him because he's a master at finding space, whether that be at the start of the game or the end as we saw against Wigan."

After suffering from an inevitable rustiness during last month's international friendly with Germany, Owen appeared considerably sharper as he broke a two-and-a-half-month scoring duck in last week's Carling Cup win over Barnsley.

The 27-year-old made it two goals in a week as he headed home an 87th-minute winner against Wigan at the weekend and, while Allardyce expects Ben Haim to have grown in confidence since joining Chelsea in June, he does not expect the Israeli to keep Owen quiet for a full 90 minutes.

"Tal's had a great start at Chelsea," he said. "It's just a shame he didn't come to me and I'll never forgive him for that!

"I think he will have grown in stature because of what he has already experienced at Chelsea, so it will be a difficult job for Michael.

"But Tal's concentration will have to be 100 per cent because it doesn't matter whether Michael is in the game or not - if he gets that one goal that he seems to get for us, it could well turn out to be the winner.

"If that's the case, then everything that's happened up to that point will be irrelevant."

Owen missed England's goalless draw in Tel Aviv in March as he recovered from the knee injury that kept him out of the majority of last season.

A subsequent thigh injury hampered his comeback attempt at the start of this campaign and, while Owen himself insists he is fitter than he has ever been, Allardyce expects him to improve further as he continues his rehabilitation.

"Michael's worked really hard, but he's still got a lot of hard work to do," he added.

"He'll have to do rehab for the rest of his life, over and above the training that he does every day.

"He can't ignore it, otherwise he'll put himself into an injury position again.

"He has to be dedicated to that rehab on his own, and that's exactly what he's doing.

"If he carries on, he'll get quicker and quicker, sharper and sharper, and we'll all reap the benefit from that.

"When he gets back to his best, he'll be converting a lot more chances than he's converting now."

Charles N'Zogbia's impressive start to the season in defence has been rewarded with an international call-up for the France Under-21 squad.

The Newcastle youngster will be involved in Friday's European Championships qualifier with Wales and next Wednesday's game in Malta