Owen confident about England future

Michael Owen is keen to impress Fabio Capello but believes his recent record for England stands up to scrutiny from the head coach.

Owen, who has scored 40 goals for his country, was a non-playing substitute for Capello's first match in charge against Switzerland but came off the bench to play the second 45 minutes of Wednesday's 1-0 defeat to France in Paris.

He said: "I've come off the bench under other managers before. It is early days. We've only played two games and they have been friendlies. Every player wants to play but for now I'm not."

He added: "I hope the manager knows what I am about. I am sure he has seen me play, he has watched videos. I missed a lot of the Euro 2008 qualifiers through my cruciate ligament injury but when I came back, I played quite well.

"I scored a couple against Russia at home and one against Israel and Estonia. I only played one more game, Russia away when we lost, so I did all right in qualifying.

"Playing and keeping fit is the key. The more I do that, the better I'll feel and I'll obviously put in better performances."

Owen admitted: "Everyone wants to impress the manager and I'm no different. There are enough reasons to want to win for your country than a new manager but it is certainly another ingredient as to why everyone wants to do well.

"We'll see what happens next time. We've got a spate of friendlies now, unfortunately friendlies instead of playing in a tournament, so there's plenty of time for him to try different things."

Owen insisted it is straightforward to adopt to the formation Capello is operating which in the first half against France saw Steven Gerrard playing as the second striker behind Wayne Rooney.

He said: "It is not different to what we know. We are playing formations that we know."