Little and Large: The curious partnership of Emile Heskey and Michael Owen

The Olympiastadion, Munich, 1st September 2001 – a relatively youthful and untested Three Lions side is about to come of age.

England’s five-goal rout of the Germans, understrength but nonetheless still German, injected a dangerous amount of invigorated hope and expectation of success among fans which took nearly 17 years to recover from.

England’s scorers that night all plied their trade on the red half of Merseyside. The pick of the bunch was a Steven Gerrard piledriver, while the four others were shared between two of his club teammates. Michael Owen bagged a hat-trick while Emile Heskey coolly finished past Oliver Kahn, the legendary Mannschaft goalkeeper and owner of a barnet capable of rivaling the sizeable furry organism atop Donald Trump’s pompous cranium.

Heskey and Owen sound like a poor comedy duo found on BBC Two from 9.30 on weeknights, but back in 2001, they were fresh off the back of a 46-goal, treble-winning partnership in their debut season together at Anfield. Their status as an early-noughties power couple to rival the likes of Posh and Becks or Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten was well and truly blossoming.

Goals were as natural to Owen as a deadline day signing would be to Harry Redknapp, but it also came as no surprise to see Heskey on the scoresheet, or to see him nod the ball down for his strike partner’s second. Yet, despite earning over 60 international caps and 150 top flight goals, what should be one of the latter’s proudest moments is instead used as a form of ridicule by his fellow Englishmen and women stood on the terraces.

“5-1… even Heskey scored.”

It is no surprise that Michael Owen enjoyed some of his most fruitful periods with his new strike partner

The killer instinct and blistering pace of Owen complimented the power, hold-up play and selflessness of Heskey to a tee, forming a partnership deserving of acknowledgment. Owen stole most of the glory for his goalscoring feats, but for every Batman there’s a Robin and every bride, a bridesmaid. Heskey may have rarely donned the veil himself, but he still contributed hugely to what was a successful Liverpool and England partnership.

Beginning his career at hometown club Leicester City, Heskey soon became a first-team regular in the mid-1990s. Under Martin O’Neill, and with the local lad as the attacking focal point, the Foxes won two League Cups and became top-half regulars. An £11million, club-record switch to Liverpool followed in March 2000.

Emile Heskey commanding a club-record fee is normally reserved for messing up your mate’s FM save, but Gerard Houllier’s decision to sign the forward, who he admitted was not the finished article at the time, was calculated.

It is no surprise that Michael Owen, already considered one of the hottest prospects in football, enjoyed some of his most fruitful periods, both domestically and internationally, when paired with his new strike partner.

Forwards are particularly placed under the microscope by anyone with access to a Wikipedia page, with their strike rate scrutinised to the very last tap-in. The likes of Heskey fall victim to this mindset. Goals win games, but there is a vast array of attributes in need of consideration before passing judgement on a player’s value to a team.

Heskey, often coming in short to link play or challenging for the ball in the air, would occupy the centre-back, while Owen would play on the shoulder of the last defender to get on the end of any through balls or flick-ons. The system was ruthlessly effective, seeing Liverpool win the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup to win an unconventional treble in 2001.

In the League Cup, Heskey flicked the ball on for Robbie Fowler’s exquisite opener against Birmingham City; an assist to rival Sergio Busquets’ two-yard pass to Lionel Messi before the Argentine beat the entire Real Madrid defence in the 2011 Champions League Semi-Final.

Special mention must go to Robbie Fowler for his contribution, but it was Owen who stole the show in the FA and UEFA Cup finals, scoring three and winning a penalty in the two games respectively.

The 2001 Ballon D’Or capped off an incredible year for Owen at the end of his and Heskey’s first season together. For the truly fanatic, bored or sad Liverpool fan Michael Owen’s 2000-2001 goal montage is as regular a feature on YouTube as Lucas Leiva saying “unlucky” or Jerzy Dudek’s jelly legs in Istanbul.

On closer inspection, however, it is often a Heskey knockdown, pass or unselfish off-the-ball run which gives Owen the space to do what he does best.

When Heskey and Owen should have been reaching their peaks, their careers had instead reached a crossroads

Over 100 goals later, the pair parted ways in 2004, Heskey moving to back to the midlands with Steve Bruce’s Birmingham City, Owen making an £8million switch to Real Madrid.

Heskey initially proved doubters wrong by earning his new side’s Player of the Season award as well as their top scorer in his first year. However, persistent injuries saw him struggle for form and only net four league goals in over 30 matches as the Blues were relegated in 2006.

Owen, on the other hand, struggled for regular playing time at Real Madrid, yet still bagged 13 goals in just 20 starts. He moved back to England in August 2005, Newcastle United paying £16million to bring him to Tyneside.

After a strong start to the season, a broken metatarsal ruled him out for five months, before two months after his return an anterior cruciate ligament tear at the 2006 World Cup saw him side-lined for almost a year.

Their early careers had been intertwined by complimentary success but now, when Heskey and Owen should have been reaching their peaks, their careers had instead reached a crossroads.

Injuries and age can be unforgiving in football. It would be ludicrous to compare their impacts on Heskey and Owen, but both did fall victim to the adage that being “past it”, renders previous ability or achievements useless.

Heskey, for example, enjoyed a minor resurgence at Wigan Athletic, particularly when his former Blues manager, Steve Bruce, took over in 2007. Although still not regularly among the goals, the forward’s link-up play was a vital part of the Latics’ style and he returned to the England fold under Fabio Capello.

Again, mirroring his old strike partner to some extent, Owen enjoyed a mini-revival after signing for Manchester United in 2009. Used as a squad player to great effect, he memorably grabbed a 96th minute winner against Manchester City to make Mark Hughes’ brain explode. Although his international career had long been finished, and his best days were well and truly behind him, Owen’s relative success at Old Trafford provided some fleeting highs in a career which promised so much more.

Two forwards with vastly differing playing styles, the effectiveness of the Owen-Heskey partnership is sadly undervalued. Both suffered dips towards the end of their careers, but this shouldn’t tarnish the contributions which they made as a pairing to both international and domestic football in the early 2000s.

That 2002 World Cup qualifier in Munich is still one of the most memorable moments in recent English football history, rivalling the World Cup penalty shootout victory, Beckham’s free-kick against Greece and Sol Campbell’s never-ending slide tackle for the number one spot.

The little-and-large combination of Heskey and Owen was at the heart of that success and deserves more than to be resigned to a tongue-in-cheek chant aimed at the old enemy.