Everton v Liverpool: To win the Merseyside derby you need fire in the heart and a cool head, says Michael Owen I spent a bit of time at Bellefield, the training ground at the time, when Everton wanted to sign me as a boy. And though they were my team my dad was not the sort to call the club office and announce: 'It's Terry Owen, ex-player, here, can you arrange some tickets for the game? Trips to Goodison were a special treat. Week to week we tended to stand on the terraces of Chester City. Liverpool have been the dominant club on Merseyside for a decade but these days Everton almost never look like losing at home. They are unbeaten in 14 Premier League games at Goodison Park in 2013 and have not conceded in 5½ hours. Equally Liverpool have only been beaten once in the last 13 Merseyside derbies. The last Everton victory was in 2010. Even leaving aside all those intense visits with Liverpool, the trips there with Newcastle or Man United or Stoke were so hard I would almost rather have been at Stamford Bridge or the Emirates. It is such a tough place to come away from with a win. People look at the stadium and underestimate the quality of Everton's players. Last year, with Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines, they had two who would make any Premier League starting XI. So it would be a mammoth win for Liverpool this weekend. I like Ross Barkley, their 19-year-old starlet, and admire the youth set-up at Everton. It is one of those academies where you would be happy to see your own son. You are given a chance there, and if you display talent you will be given a chance in your best position, rather than being shunted out to the wing. I have studied Barkley a couple of times this season and Martínez has granted him the superstar's role, floating, in behind the striker. That is a huge endorsement and a sign that the manager is bold enough to display his faith in homegrown talent. A youngster breaking through at Chelsea or Man City is much less likely to be given his head in his preferred role. To have a team built around you at such a young age is quite a gift. Barkley has two good feet and real venom in his shots. Not the finished article yet - his decision-making will improve with time - but my word he has some raw ability. He is very high on the list of exciting players to take England through the next five or 10 years. It helps him to have Romelu Lukaku playing centre-forward, in that formation, playing the Didier Drogba role. It is one of the bigger mysteries of this season that Chelsea let Lukaku go on loan alone but everyone at Everton is glad they did. Gareth Barry, meanwhile, has helped fill the role left by Fellaini, whose direct style suited Everton perfectly in the Moyes years. Under Martínez, who has tinkered with the formation, the emphasis is more on passing. Fellaini is a fine player who fits a physical game and has no problem with the ball being in the air. To receive such a big fee for Fellaini was good business, given that Everton held on to Baines: a wonderful left-back who scores and creates goals, is fast, can pass and has a good football brain. The sale of Fellaini strengthened the first-team budget, and Barry's wages are money well spent. He is an old hand in there, gets the team playing and passing and sniffs out danger; the ideal player when you have bombing full-backs, Lukaku up front, and Barkley playing free. That calming influence is just what Martínez needs in midfield. Merseyside derbies generate incredible passion in the city. Five days before the game you will pull up at traffic lights and people will beep at you and clench their fists behind car windows. That transmits itself to the players. We would be deluged by phone calls from friends telling us what to do in the game and firing us up, as if we needed reminding. The emphasis starts to focus itself on not letting the fans down. If you get caught up in it, that's when the red cards start appearing. You enter a different emotional world. I was lucky not to be sent off for lunging at David Weir in one Merseyside derby but escaped with a yellow card. The manager always tells you: "I know you're all revved up for it, but remember - fire in the heart, ice in the head." You do have to remind yourself of that before you kick-off. Otherwise it really will kick off.