Right - to start off with I'm not putting the boot into the management, but I do think that some decisions tonight need explaining. The only forced change to the Ipswich team was the injury to Cairney. One problem. So to remedy that problem: Dawson is brought in at Left Back; Left Back Dudgeon is played at Left Midfield; Hobbs is stripped of the Captaincy, and that is passed back to Dawson... Why have we signed Pusic? Surely if we were bringing Brady or Koren to play in the hole - then we should have played the winger we signed only last week - instead of experimenting with players out of position. Or we shouldn't have signed him. What confidence is he going to have now seeing a defender playing in his position. Likewise Hobbs - hardly a boost losing the captaincy and even if Dawson is the club captain, how can he realistically hold the captaincy when it's obvious he's not going to be a starter?
No issue with dawson being captain, he is club captain therefore would surely have the armband when on the pitch. Hobbs would know this will always be the case.
Pusic did nothing against Macc. In fairness the performance was good, we just need to defend a little bit better, and put the ball in the net at some point. We showed we can defend better than that at Ipswich, but we were always going to struggle against their style of play.
I just can't see a case for a guy who wouldn't be starting at the beginning of the season keeping the captaincy. If we'd landed Ayala last week, chances are with the 5-man bench, Dawson might not even make it. We needed a Leader on the pitch tonight - and we didn't have it.
Similar statements were probably made about Custer's last stand and the Charge of the Light Brigade after the event.Dawson should have been shipped out 2 seasons ago ,I don't rate Hobson as a replacement for the armband but Dawson getting it in the first place was pure loonacy.