The 35-year-old admits he is dismayed at the way his former team-mate’s career has fizzled out, insisting his formidable talent in the penalty area is too easily forgotten

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has hailed Michael Owen as a “supreme goalscorer” after the Stoke striker announced he is set to retire at the end of the season.

Owen played alongside Carragher from 1997 to 2004 at Anfield, scoring 158 goals in 297 appearances in all competitions and winning the FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup with the Reds.

And Carragher, who is also set to hang up his boots this summer, believes his former team-mate’s talent is not fully appreciated by English football fans.

“It still annoys me that people forget what a top player he was,” the 35-year-old wrote in his column in the Daily Mail.

“Michael had this unshakable belief that he was the best and wasn’t bothered about trying to usurp Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore to get into Liverpool’s starting line-up.

“The best strikers are single-minded and I saw at first hand how he was able to put disappointments to one side and bounce back when it really mattered.

“He used to take knocks in his career but he always came back with an answer.”

Owen has made just seven appearances for Stoke this season, and Carragher admits it is not the sort of glorious farewell a player of such pedigree deserves.

“Maybe he should have made this decision a couple of years ago or taken the chance to play in America or the Middle East,” the Liverpool defender added.

“Something doesn’t seem right about him potentially bringing the curtain down on his career sitting on the bench when Stoke play Southampton.

“But that won’t diminish my memories or opinion of him.

“He was a supreme goalscorer, capable of glorious moments, and the goal he swept past David Seaman in the Millennium Stadium in that 2001 final provided my finest Liverpool moment until Istanbul.

“For good reason it will be remembered as the ‘Owen Final’.”