Houllier stands by Owen

GERARD HOULLIER claims he will keep Michael Owen in the front line as Liverpool bid to maintain their 100% start to the campaign.

There have been suggestions that the Liverpool boss plans to leave out Owen, who has not scored yet this season and has been substituted in all three senior games the club have played.

Owen picked up another hamstring injury during the World Cup and only completed one of England's five matches in the Far East.

Although Houllier maintains that he will rotate his three front line men Owen, Emile Heskey and El Hadji Diouf it is likely now that Owen will be in the starting line-up at Blackburn tonight.

Houllier said: "At the moment Michael needs to play because he is close to scoring, and he doesn't stay long without scoring. That's why he will probably lead our attack at Blackburn. I don't understand where the suggestion has come from that I will be leaving Michael out.

"Every striker sometimes needs a rest to maintain the freshness of the players. Michael and Emile played five games in the World Cup and most of the friendlies so there will be a need to rotate and rest players."

He added: "We have four strikers, five if Jari Litmanen stays, because he can work off the front man very well.

"We have Owen, Heskey and Milan Baros, plus Diouf. It's a good option.

"You can get an impression in training of how fresh they are. That's when we will make decisions on fitness."

Now Houllier wants to maintain the form that has seen Liverpool win both their opening games as they sit second behind Leeds on goal difference.

He said: "We want to keep the same momentum that we had last season when we finished with 11 wins from 13. We also have got a lot of points from our last 17 Premiership games we have taken 46 from the last 51 available. At the moment the players are determined to keep that going and be as efficient as possible."

But Houllier knows Blackburn, also unbeaten, will provide probably their stiffest test yet.

He said: "This will be an exciting match. Last season we drew there and won a fine game 4-3 at our place.

"Blackburn haven't conceded a goal and have won away at Birmingham. It shows that every team in this division can beat everyone else.

"There is no such thing as an easy game. But our two wins were good ones and we obviously want to keep that going."