It wasn't that simple at the time though, a lot of people still had (unwarranted) faith that we had a top class player on our books that could pop up with a goal. I know his performances were terrible but Shearer clearly thought he could get the best out of him. There's a lot of hindsight bullshit going on with Owen and the relegation season imo - the other options weren't brilliant either and we weren't so aware that he had the heart of a pea at the time.
Wrong as I'd have been I'd have generally put Owen in my first 11 and hoped I could get the best out of a player that was the best striker in the country not that long ago.
In fairness, I was saying for a while before Shearer took over that we should be starting the likes of Carroll, Viduka, whatever instead of him purely because they'd contribute more to general play - games passed Owen by because our side just wasn't creating the chances, and on the odd occasion we did, he fluffed them (see Pompey and Boro at home). He was also very weak on the ball and his number of touches was minimal. I'd had enough of the little cunt by then, the Portsmouth miss was the absolute final straw for me.