Tottenham: Defoe ready for Wales challenge

Jermain Defoe believes he can offer England something different to Michael Owen in attack against Wales on Saturday.

The Tottenham striker, 22 on Thursday, is on stand-by to replace Owen, as the Real Madrid new-boy struggles to be fit for the crucial World Cup qualifier.

Defoe put himself in the reckoning to start this weekend after scoring England's opener in Poland last month and thinks he proved that be provides a different option to the former Liverpool striker.

"A lot of people said before the Poland game that I was similar to Michael Owen but, hopefully, they think differently now," Defoe said.

"I thought to myself [in the Poland match], 'I'm going to drop deep, get involved in the game and try and create things too'. And after the game, a lot of people said they saw a different Jermain Defoe.

"It's something I've worked on. I always work hard and I always want to learn.

"Obviously, I am in competition with Michael, but when you've got
competition in the squad, it's good for the team.

"Michael is a great player, who has gone to Real Madrid - probably the best team in the world.

"I just want to focus on myself, keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully that's enough."


Judas, but he will score goals at any level, for any club.

Stand-by?

If Owen is struggling he shouldn't pick him at all. He hasnt hardly played for Real and in his previous games for England he hasn't been that good....

Michael Owen took another stride towards confirming his availability for England's World Cup qualifier with Wales on Saturday by taking part in the main training session at Manchester United's Carrington HQ on Thursday.

Owen has set himself a deadline of Thursday to prove he was over the back muscle problem which flared up during Real Madrid's Primera Liga defeat to Deportivo La Coruna last weekend.

Owen had already done better than expected by linking up with the main squad for the second half of training on Wednesday after coming through a solo session with England physio Gary Lewin.

His presence with the squad on virtually assures coach Sven-Goran Eriksson his most prolific scorer will be fit, leaving the Swede the tricky dilemma of whether to name the out-of-form forward in his starting line-up.

Sportinglife

Defoe for me at the moment. Owen looks likely to start though.

If is he fit you just know Sven is going to play Owen. I thought the days had gone when the manager picked the favourite or big name players even if they was playing crap.

Sven-Goran Eriksson has admitted he is considering deploying a three-man attack against Wales in Saturday's World Cup qualifier.

The England manager was expected to pick two from Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen and Jermain Defoe but the Swede could opt to play all three.

He said: "We have been practising and trying different solutions, that's one of them but we tried other things so we'll decide tomorrow."

Eriksson's plans have been boosted by Wayne Rooney's return from injury and Rio Ferdinand's completion of his eight-month drugs ban.

"He (Rooney) looks very good and in great shape and it's amazing to see him knowing he's been out for such a long time," he said.

"The same with Rio, he's very fit and very hungry to play for England."

Ferdinand's availability means Eriksson has the luxury of picking the Manchester United defender and Sol Campbell for the match while keeping John Terry and Ledley King in reserve.

Sportinglife

Defoe looked like the odd man out during the game.

Yeah he didn't have that good a game to be honest, but neither did Owen. It looked like the formation never suited them both. They both need to play along side a target man so they can feed off him...

I thought it suited Owen very well, he got the chance to drift out wide and pick the ball up and run.

The problem is they both play off the shoulder and Owen is getting the role Defoe wants.