"I don't think people quite understand what he brings to the team. Not everyone is wrong, like Jamie Carragher, Didi Hamann and Steven Gerrard, who I speak to on a regular basis," said Owen.
"I've trained with him several times and played with him a couple of times. He is a very good player. Maybe he's lacking confidence and needs a good performance or a goal. He's a lad that is maybe a bit affected.
"Some people get used to criticism and it's water off a duck's back. But for him, joining the England team and getting booed, I don't think it's going to help him, put it that way.
"There'll be a lot of people who are surprised when he does find the net and starts playing very well, but there are just as many - me included - that won't be surprised in the slightest."
