Gerrard hails 'awesome' Owen

Last updated : 06 September 2003 By Chris Maxwell
While many onlookers have offered the view that the dynamic England midfielder is the vital cog in the Reds machine, 23-year-old Gerrard insists that Owen still sets the standards that he and his fellow Reds must aim to follow.

Gerrard said:  "It's not hard to guess who's the best player at Liverpool, Michael Owen. He's a right jack of all trades, he can play anything and he's brilliant at it all.

"You watch him in training and he's awesome. He feels in decent form at the moment, and you can see it. He always looks like scoring a goal.

"Everyone knows how good Michael is, but he really is on top of his game at the moment, and that can only be good news for England as well as Liverpool.

"It's great having someone like Michael on your side. You give him the ball and you know he will do something with it. He is always dangerous and always puts defences under so much pressure.

"It's not just football though. You name it, he's good at it. Snooker, golf, football. We play golf all the time and if we have a long wait before a match we'll have a knockout tournament to ease the boredom, and he's the best!

"He's even the best at cards - he's so lucky! He doesn't cheat but he's got a really good poker face. Luckily, we only play for fivers and tenners, so we don't get fleeced!"