Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen has defended the Reds following Sir Alex Ferguson's accusation that he was overplayed as a young player.
The former Manchester United manager believes that the injury issues that plagued Owen later in his career was due to the fact he played too much football as a young player.
However, Owen has defended the Reds from that claim and believes he was played out of necessity, with United having a far superior squad at that stage.
"Yeah it’s a really interesting question and I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer to it really," he replied to BBC podcast Savage Social when asked if he was played too much as a young player.
"If you talk to Sir Alex Ferguson, he’s convinced that I overplayed and all the rest of it. Which is fine and I absolutely respect his opinion.
"He thinks that while I was scoring goals for Liverpool and then in the summer I’d be whisked off to play for England Under-20s and then I’d be straight back in the Liverpool first team.
"But at the time that’s just what happened. I guess Liverpool needed me. And I suppose Liverpool needed me more than certain players were needed for Manchester United at the time, because they had such a great squad.
"They could bring [Ryan] Giggs in or out, all these different players. Whereas we were trying to catch them, we didn’t have the luxury of having a massive squad and being able to rotate."
