Owen underwhelmed as Carsley doesn’t prove England can win World Cup in two games

Michael Owen has not seen enough from Lee Carsley’s two matches as interim manager to prove England are “going to win the World Cup”.

Yes, Owen is referring to the same Lee Carsley who has only managed England against Finland and the Republic of Ireland in the UEFA Nations League.

We are not surprised that the former Ballon d’Or winner is not bouncing off the walls after a man with no senior managerial experience (in a non-caretaker role) has managed two games that nobody would have cared one bit about if there wasn’t a new manager.

Former manager Gareth Southgate has his critics but any new manager would be silly to make wholesale changes after consecutive European Championship finals.

Carsley did raise some eyebrows with his squad selection, but in a good way.

He brought Jack Grealish back in after Southgate left the Manchester City winger out of his final Euro 2024 squad and called up several players he managed at Under-21 level, including Morgan Gibbs-White, Noni Madueke and Angel Gomes.

England are back in action this month against Greece and Finland in the Nations League, with Carsley given a second international break to prove his worth to the Football Association.

The FA are no closer to appointing a long-term successor for Southgate, with Graham Potter and Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe also being linked with the job.

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Carsley has not been given a glowing reference from former Three Lions striker Owen, who is a little bit underwhelmed after two 2-0 wins last month.

“I mean, without being big-headed, England is a nation that really wins all their qualifiers and we should be winning all these games,” Owen said. “We played Ireland and won 2-0 and we played Finland and won 2-0.

“If that was a Premier League team and a manager was managing Southampton and came in and beat Liverpool 2-0 and then Man United 2-0, you’d think, ‘oh wow, give them the job, they’re doing great’, but it’s so hard to gauge, isn’t it?

“You’re going to be gauging England in the major tournaments against the top nations because really apart from that international football, we are playing against a lot of countries that we should be beating, that are inferior in terms of quality.

“I know the FA likes bringing people through the ranks. They did it with Gareth Southgate. The Spain manager who just won the European Championships has come through the ranks in the Spanish Federation.

“They might be looking over the fence and thinking, ‘well, look at that one’. That gives Lee Carsley a chance.

“Put it this way, in the two games I’ve seen so far, I’ve not thought, ‘wow that’s a big difference from Gareth Southgate’.

“I’ve not seen anything to think this guy is on to something. We found the missing ingredient and now we’re a team that is going to win the World Cup. I’ve not seen that yet but I suppose I’ll give him a chance.”