surprised he didn't get any time on the pitch yesterday. considering flicker said 'dawson will start the game against manchester city', and he hasn't touched a ball since. to be honest though, the game wasn't won or lost in the middle yesterday.
I thought he should have started yesterday. We are in a dog fight! Flicker please unleash the rottweiler
We haven't been lacking in midfield for years, that is one area where we are comfortable. The risk with putting Dawson in is that we might lose some of the creativity, I wonder what he's like at centre-half? Yesterday we didn't have anything up front and we never got in behind them, instead having shoot through a wall of big gangly Wednesday defenders. Dagnall struggled, and has done for a few weeks. Harewood played about as well as I expected him to, his hold up play is brilliant but the way we play him takes him away from positions where he comfortable having a shot. Scotland seems to have gone backwards with his fitness, he seemed a bit too "giddy" for me yesterday, seemed to rush things when he had time and not react quick enough when being closed down, first touch was poor as well. I like Danny Rose but in hindsight we were better with Etuhu in midfield rather than going 3 up top, Reuben needs to get more game time as well (possibly instead of O'Brien) as he fashioned a shot that really had Kirkland in a panic out of nothing and had a few opportunities in a similar position but took another touch instead of shooting by which time he was in a cul-de-sac. As I said last night, it was a bit like watching the side under Keith Hill, no real tempo in the final third which is a shame because the Wednesday defenders are really on there to hoof the ball clear and are vulnerable when taken on.
As Dawson will most likely come in for either Etuhu or Perkins, both of whom looked lost for much of the 2nd half against Wednesday, I'm not sure what creativity we'll lose. While we insist on playing our most creative player in the shape of Jacob Mellis out wide we'll never be that creative in midfield.
We just couldn't cope with Wednesdays physical players, its as simple as that. We can't question the desire and the commitment. Hopefully we don't have to come up against a team as physical as them again. Off the top of my head i don't think we do.