Dewsbury-Hall plays as if every game might be his last for City...
MIDFIELDER SPARKED SECOND HALF TURNAROUND
KIERNAN Dewsbury-Hall has been trying to prove a point for months now.
He had his own pre-pre-season – a month’s worth of fitness work before the squad officially returned to Seagrave – that enabled him to leave his team-mates in the dust on the speed and stamina tests.
Then he gave committed, forward-thinking performances in preseason, scoring against QPR and setting one up against Villarreal.
If his player-of-the-season displays on loan at Luton had not convinced Brendan Rodgers he was worth a place in his squad, his work throughout the summer did.
The next task, getting a place in the Premier League starting line-up, has proven trickier.
He has started in the Carabao Cup, and in one European game, but he’s quite often playing in a muchchanged, disjointed line-up for these fixtures, and that makes it more difficult to impress.
The biggest issue facing Dewsbury-Hall though is that, stylistically, he is most similar to Youri Tielemans, the heart of the team and one of the players who won’t be dropped.
It was likely going to need an injury for the door to open.
For the five games before City’s draw at Southampton, DewsburyHall had come on as a substitute, bringing an energy to the midfield in games they were leading, and more attacking impetus in matches where they were trailing.
That culminated in Wednesday night, where his introduction changed the game.
Dewsbury-Hall plays as if every game might be his last.
He is not taking it for granted that he has made it as a professional at his hometown club. Every second on the pitch is a chance to show what he can do.
And that dedication and intensity inspired his team-mates too, prompting City to produce the turnaround that earned them a point and could have earned them all three.
Replacing Boubakary Soumare at half-time, Dewsbury-Hall had more ball receptions, made more carries, played more progressive passes, and attempted more pressures than the Frenchman.
Rodgers has admitted that Soumare
has played more than he initially expected he would, and maybe he is now suffering from fatigue.
Tielemans will be assessed for the weekend and might be fit, in which case Dewsbury-Hall will be unfortunate, because there seems nobody more deserving of a start right now.
He is inexperienced at the top level, but he won’t get that without chances, and his effort and desire may eradicate any gap in quality.
Rodgers doesn’t want City to find themselves on the back foot again, and so it makes sense to turn to a player whose attitude and style won’t allow for a slow, reactive start, and whose proactive approach is also infectious for his team-mates.
The star man for the third game running was James Maddison, and this excellent form feels slightly different to his previous good periods.
Many of Maddison’s best games and streaks have come during City’s own high points, runs of matches where they look unstoppable.
In those cases, it is sometimes difficult to know if Maddison is feeding off the team, or the team is feeding off Maddison.
For example, last season, Maddison registered at least one goal or assist in 16 separate matches.
Fourteen of those fixtures ended in victory for City, with one draw, and one defeat.
Take Maddison’s goal involvements away, and only seven of the results would have been different.
In short, a lot of Maddison’s best moments came in matches where City won comfortably.
That is completely different to right now.
Take away his three goals and three assists from the last three games and City would have picked up just one point rather than seven.
On Wednesday, he played well in spite of his team-mates, and not because of. Like Dewsbury-Hall, he was influential in City getting a result. The dummies, feints, and chops were terrific, and frequently fooled Southampton defenders, and his movement into dangerous areas made him difficult to mark out of the game.
This looks to be Maddison taking a step up to the next level, where he is leading City to results even when those around him are underperforming.