Owen Hargreaves
by Herr Ed
There was predictable criticism of Sven Goran Eriksson’s inclusion of Owen Hargreaves in his squad. Hargreaves is the player England fans most love to criticise – when England perform inadequately Hargreaves is singled out as an example of England’s lack of purpose and dynamism. This is unfair and inappropriate.
Hargreaves was a Champions League winner with Bayern Munich in 2001 when he was just 20 years old, and was deemed good enough to play the whole 120 minutes of the final against Valencia. He also played very well against Man United in a Champions League fixture the following year. Over the past few seasons, when uninjured, he has been a first choice player for Bayern – who are one of the top club sides in Europe. Hargreaves can play across the midfield, or in either full-back position, which suggests an impressive versatility. This doesn’t mean he is jack-of-all-trades, master of none – he’s playing in this range of positions for the best team in the Bundesliga! Hargreaves also looked solid for England in the pre-World Cup friendlies in 2002 and started in central midfield against Sweden in the first World Cup group match. He also started the next game against Argentina, but was substituted as a result of injury.
Since then Hargreaves’ opportunities at international level have become increasingly limited. As a result, his profile has diminished with England fans and the only performances he is judged on are brief appearances as substitute. His most recent cameos may not have been very inspiring but we have to be realistic about how much impact a player can make when joining an already misshapen and disoriented midfield late in a game. Hargreaves is a hard-working, pragmatic midfielder; he isn’t a flying winger who can dazzle with one isolated bit of skill. What could any player in his position really be expected to do when joining a lethargic England team on the pitch as the game nears full-time?
We should also recognise that Hargreaves isn’t the only England midfielder to look less than impressive over recent years. Beckham and Gerrard haven’t had a big game for England between them for several years, and it was also well documented that Paul Scholes didn’t reproduce his club form in the latter stages of his international career. More recently, Jermaine Jenas hasn’t done much of note in his appearances for England, but he doesn’t attract the same criticism that is levelled at Hargreaves. This isn’t to denigrate the aforementioned players, but it does raise the question: why is Hargreaves singled out as England’s scapegoat? Perhaps because, as a result of being born in Canada and having never played club football in England, he is perceived to be the least quintessentially English member of the squad. He’s also seemingly a quiet and unassuming personality. This basically means that he’s an unfamiliar and mild-mannered outsider and, therefore, an obvious target for playground bullies.
The most common query from England fans is: what exactly does Owen Hargreaves do? Hargreaves must be given an opportunity to show what he can do at World Cup 2006.
May 15th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Can he change his name to “Michael” Owen Hargreaves, play up front and fix broken foot parts?
May 15th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
He should be left out because no-one can be taken seriously with a hair cut like that…
May 15th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
Hargreaves should have a more advanced and attacking role for England. Rather than playing him as a ’square-ball Johnny’ like Didier Deschamps, OH could give England a different dimension if allowed to be more flexible and occasionally get in goalscoring postions.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Surley the question should be, what does Jenas exactly add to the team that Hargreaves doesn’t?
May 15th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
That isn’t the question we are dealing with here though Bill.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I don’t know much about the chap, but when he came on against Portugal in 2004, all the Germans in the pub started laughing.
May 16th, 2006 at 8:13 am
…but Hargreaves was the only England player that took a decent penalty in the shoot-out.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:46 am
Would Hargreaves be good enough to be selected for the French or German squads?
May 16th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Would Jenas be good enough?
May 16th, 2006 at 11:00 am
That doesn’t answer my question.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Jimmy Greaves would still be good enough for the German squad!
May 16th, 2006 at 1:56 pm
Maybe Sven can play Jimmy Greaves in a Hargreaves wig.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:28 am
He is an alias for Osama Bin Laden - no wonder the Americans can’t fnd him
May 17th, 2006 at 11:07 am
How long have you been keeping that information to yourself Big Ron?
May 17th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
I’ve put my mortgage on Hargreaves to score a hat-trick in England’s 6-2 win in the final.
May 19th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I noticed one bookmaker has odds for Hargreaves to be the top scorer for Germany. Bonkers!
http://www.easyodds.com/compareodds/football/football_matrix.aspx?SetId=11423&GroupId=35&SDT=5
May 24th, 2006 at 3:33 pm
I look forward to hearing Hargreaves speak during the tournament. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him interviewed.
May 31st, 2006 at 9:52 am
We gripe about Owen Hargreaves, not through some xenophobic need, but because he is cr#p!
He is the poorest player I have witnessed for some years, and how he’s managed the caps he has, is miraculous!
He could be from France for all I care, and if he was good enough, he’d be accepted, but lets face it, when Sven goes, so will Owen…….thank goodness!
May 31st, 2006 at 9:57 am
Too right.
He IS the Chris Waddle of the new millenium.
Can’t trap a ball. Can’t tackle. Pulls out of block. Runs about headlessly.
Micheal Carrick must be fuming at Hargreaves inclusion in the squad and the team above him.
Hargreaves, MIGHT be a nice, quiet, unassuming guy, but all I can say is that Hargreave MUST have some s**t on Sven. Something that is bigger than all the cr*p that Sven has owned upto in th erecent past. Something big enough to keep him included in the team…despite the poor, poor, poor performances.
May 31st, 2006 at 2:25 pm
Hargreaves’ performances for Bayern Munich must be pretty special as I can’t see the coach or the fans thinking too highly of him if he plays like he does for England.
I don’t reckon any of the other recent England managers would have included Hargreaves in their teams. I can’t recall there being any interest in him from Premiership clubs either!
Since Sven picked Hargreaves originally he has been scared of dropping him as people would have asked why he bothered in the first place.
June 1st, 2006 at 3:17 pm
Herr Ed, you were actually spot on when you said he was a ‘Jack of all trades, and a master of none’, have you witnessed his last 2 performances at full back and then as a holding midfielder, he was awful at both! I agree Jenas is also useless, but you can’t try and blame the fact that Hargreaves is Welsh/Canadian/German - if he was good enough we wouldn’t care! The Bundesliga must be a very low standard at present if he is an outstanding player.
November 22nd, 2006 at 6:31 pm
What do you lads think of Hargreaves now?
December 10th, 2006 at 11:49 pm
Well i think i can safely say that most people are eating their words after he aced the World Cup and remains in the team.
Take that, Hargreaves doubters!