England striker Michael Owen said he is content to do his talking on the pitch and hope that his prolific scoring record will eventually earn him a place in Real Madrid's starting line-up.

"I'm trying to do as well as I can and fortunately I'm playing quite well and scoring goals," Owen told a news conference on Friday. "But obviously whether I play or not is down to the manager."

Owen, who has scored five league goals since joining Real from Liverpool in the close season, has not yet managed to dislodge Ronaldo and Raul as the first-choice forwards at the club, but his strike rate is better than either player.

"I saw an article in the paper about my goals per minute the other day," he said. "But that's my job, I came here to score goals.

"Obviously statistics can work in your favour and there are different ways of twisting things to make things look good or bad, but I'm very pleased with the amount of goals I've scored in the amount of time I've played. I want that to continue that way and even get better."

Owen should make the starting line-up for Real's league match away to Villarreal this Sunday after coach Mariano Garcia Remon hinted that he will rest Raul ahead of next week's decisive clash against Roma in the Champions League.

But the 24-year-old former Liverpool player said it was not his place to say whether or not he should play.

"I don't think you would have much respect from your fellow players if you kept saying that you should be in the team.

"All I can do is to try and do my talking on the pitch and persuade the manager by my actions that I can play in the first team. But it is not for me to rock the boat and say who should or shouldn't be playing.

"From a football point of view I don't think I could ask much more of myself - it's been a very good start for me."

After 13 games of the season, Real are in second place in the standings, seven points behind leaders Barcelona who host Malaga at the Nou Camp on Saturday.