While Harry Redknapp has changed much of the side during the opening five fixtures of this season, he has generally relied on Michael Dawson throughout and you can almost detect that the Spurs’ stand in skipper is the first name on the team sheet for every vital match.
However, whenever Daws’ name is mentioned it always seems to split opinion with support and criticism in equal measures. Last season, Michael may have expected some serious competition for his place but after sustaining a serious injury on international duty at the beginning of the campaign, he returned to a depleted side where injuries to King, Woodgate, Gallas and Kaboul meant that there was no real challenge to his slot at the heart of defence.
For some reason that defies explanation, Daws isn’t currently being considered for the full England squad, which means he is free to concentrate on Spurs. But should he always be the first name on Harry’s team sheet and does he need some real competition from a fit Ledley King or a newly arrived Gary Cahill?
In short, will Michael Dawson be a hit or miss in 2011-12?
One of the most overrated players in the prem any mistakes he makes are blamed on the other CB who plays with him. Plays well with King but who doesnt? He’s good for a reckless tackle in the area each match as well. He doesnt need pressure he needs replacing
HIT, HIT, HIT.
May not be the best centre half at WHL, but the biggest heart.
If they all gave as much effort as him we would probably be unstoppable.
One thing that you will never see in his end of term report “Could try harder”!!!
Thanks Michael.
Im afraid to say he is a MISS, nice guy and all that but heh too slow prone to mistakes etc, just off top of my head some incidents – the worst one an own goal against man ure a couple of years back in the 99th minute when we were about to beat them for the first time in a hundred years,also bringing down beckford in the last minute against leeds – resulting in me having to go up to leeds for the replay with all those northern neanderthals, turned by torres, poor poisitional play generally, sorry but miss !
The bravest centre-back I’ve ever seen! Class, puts himself where no other defenders would. Definite hit.
He is a nice guy with a big heart but he has a number of serious shortcomings to play in top level.
He is too slow, he doesn’t read the game, he isn’t dominant and commanding, he lacks essential ball technique, he is very vulnerable in one against one situations and the way he plays isn’t the most intelligent and he doesn’t have also a winner’s character.
He can be used as a substitute.
MISS
In his favour, I would say Dawson is very brave, works very hard and for the most part, his jumping and heading ability seem to be as good as any other Premier League defender, but… he is too slow on a one-to-one situation, and seems rather error prone and a bit rash at times. I think Dawson, along with Kaboul and Huddlestone, are way too overrated. I think the centre of defence is a BIG problem for us, and I don’t like the pairing of Kaboul and Dawson at all…
He is brave and an example to every member of the club. He always talks the club up, always gives his best, is brave and loves the badge. He has played superbly in many games, he has come unstuck in quite a few too. It is hard for him too. I can remember him playing with Ledders, Woodgate, Corluka, Kaboul, Huddlestone, Gallas and if my memory serves me right even Palacios as his partner…not forgetting Heuraliho behind him. I have said on here before that centre halves should be judged as a partnership. I do not feel comfortable calling him as I thing he does a fine job on the whole, and as a captain, especially with the above. I would just like him to release the ball a little quicker into the midfielders rather than the long ball that he sometimes delivers.
Miss, probably the worst defender in a one on one situation that I can recall seeing. He does put his all into performances but I’d rather quality than effort, as harsh as that sounds.
Also hoping that Parker takes the captaincy, Dawson never seems to lift the team.
When playing with a decent partner like King or Gallas, he’s decent, but with Kaboul, pretty useless. The question is has learnt anything in 6 seasons?, and the answer is in my opinion-No! Love his heart and commitment, he plays with a smile, but he’s never gone forward, just the same as when he began, which isn’t a good thing is it? We’ll struggle without King or Gallas, but we didn’t without Dawson, that’s for sure!
Summed it up as I see it. Totally over-rated, never, ever mentioned in discussions about top centre backs in the Premiership amoungst neutrals; because he hasn’t developed at all. Would keep Kaboul and buy another ?Cahill/ Samba/ another. King should go now and commence fulltime coaching of our young backs, Gallas last season, and then sell Dawson to Stoke!
Definitely a miss. He hasn’t formed a partnership with anyone other than ledley king, who in my opinion carries him. A good player stays on his feet. If your sliding around as much as dawson it means your positioning is awful. When we got done by united he never got close to anyone for the goals v city it was worse. He chokes in big games, always has! He has no skill, no imagination, no speed just grunt. Aguero went round him as though he wasn’t there. When he missed that bloke by about 5 yards then jumped as the ball hit the net Charlie just shrugged his shoulders, wtf. Watch Dawson, he plays like this all the time. he’s always being bailed out or making last ditch efforts, which look spectacular but if he knew what he was doing wouldn’t need to make em. I seriously think he’s a liability.Dawson makes me cry. If we hadn’t conceded such soft goals last year we’d be in the champs league, still. But really you have to blame Harry. He’s an old fart who thinks you need a 6 foot striker and a 6 foot 6 CB. try telling that to Barca and poor ol giovanni. Dawson needs to be dropped. He’s been around far too long to stay in the side making the amount of mistakes he makes week in week out. Last season we had the best midfield in the prem and dawson still couldn’t perform. He’s back up material at best.
That is a funny statement has he played with the same defense twice no not even the two games we have played . The quality’s Dawson has is bravery and he is one of the best front on defenders but is big problem is when he charges forward and leaves is back door wide open when King or Gallas plays they cover is back Kaboul and Corluka don’t. He also gets to close to attackers and gets turned a few times but all teams have to have a player like Dawson at the back the problem is we have never had a settled back four to complement is brave 100 percent abilaty
Hit, due to injury prone centre backs for him to partner so far at spurs, he hasnt gained like ledley did from sol, from having someone solid to learn from. He’s largely done it off his own back so far and learn from his own mistakes on the pitch, and is now coming to the age he should be peaking at, loads more to come from daws yet
Chris, he’s been with us for six season’s mate, and if in that time he hasn’t learnt, then in all honesty he never will. I really like the guy as I posted but equally it’s easy to confuse the issue with whether he’s actually got anything other than enthusiasm in his locker, and you’ll come up with-not much- at the very best. If he was less likeable, the fans would have crucified him long ago in my opinion.
I’m afraid that its a miss for me which is a shame because Dawson showed a lot of promise alongside Ledley. This is perhaps the reason why he looked so promising as anyone would look good with a fit healthy Ledley beside them. It’s all gone a bit south for Dawson because he is not an authoritative leader figure but gets by with bravery however, bravery isnt enough and his one pace frequently gets him caught flatfooted and out of position by quick attacks. It would have been interesting if Levy had sanctioned the Cahill transfer, who Redknapp would have paired him with. My bet would have been Kaboul sitting on the bench which would have been a travesty because Kaboul can be a real giant for us in the heart of our defence.
I think Dawson’s quality & some of the critisims are a little harsh.. No skill? Come on, he’s a cb..he’s not meant to dribble but he can certainly pass the ball both short & long. We’ve all also seen him score some great goals for us with his feet, I might add! I’m not saying he’s the best defender, or the quickest but he isn’t slow – he’ll beat Corluka in a race..but then so would my mum if she had her trainers on.. I digress.. I also don’t think Daws should captain us either but he’s definitely quality & when I look around the prem there’s not that many centre backs I’d put ahead of him.. Problem actually is, we arguably had 3 of the top 5 cb’s before we sold Woody which would be difficult for any player to replicate such a high standard! Hopefully between Parker & Sandro our cb’s will get the much needed cover they deserve & won’t be exposed as often! COYS!
I cant believe these comments especially IOANX he isnt commanding? He puts his head on every cross that comes in the box. Yes he lacks a bit of pace but you are watching a different game to me. His passing is better than Ledley, Gallas, Woodgate short and long.
Hit all day long. Daws has been a fantastic servant to the club and great role model. Whilst his lack of pace does let him down his Arial dominance and determination make him a valuable asset to any prem team. Should we have got Cahill we would have seen a Terry carvalho esque partnership a combination of technical ability and physical dominance but yet again our beloved club fail in the Market!
Miss.
All heart etc, and decent enough for a mid table prem team. Top quality he isn’t. His distribution is woeful. He has the worst stats in the prem for hoofing it. Positionally weak, when playing against a tricky attacker he loses all day. Too easily fooled.
Squad player.
Big Time MISS
As Nick said first up he has been getting away with all the mistakes he has made. He has cost us so many goals its unreal. Other defenders end up leaving what they need to do just to cover him. Thats why Ledley got injured back in the day covering for Dawson.
He dives in and never marks and always gets beaten one on one.
MISS
in an ideal world (without Sky tv/Rednapps ego/spineless athletes disguised as footballers), I’d say miss.. he struggles to keep up.. with everything: concentration-awareness-positioning but has delivered some timely quality goals.
Looks half asleep in way too many games..
But for now, he loves spurs and it’s only right to give him a pass, irrespective of his ability, thats what managers and coaches are paid (S*** loads) to deal with.
coyyysss
Are you kidding me? According to my definition of “miss”, Dawson is not a “miss”. Dawson + Andy Reid cost 8m. Eight Million, and most of that was for Reid. So for that money, Dawson was undoubtedly one of our best players in our 4th placed season. Definitely a “hit” for that price, 4th place and CL football alone – plus a captain. Now has he backed up that season? Not quite, no. He was injured, came back and earnt Spurs their first clean sheets of last season – so his presence is definitely felt. But if all CBs were fit, he would not make my starting lineup – but then again, what chance is there that all CBs will be fit? Short answer “hit”, longer answer: George Graham & Howard Wilkinson were hits, and then the game moved on, and they didn’t. Dawson is in similar territory.
This why I hate being a spurs supporter…u dumb fickle f*cks…until we have someone better u should always give anyone who puts on the tottenham shirt 100%! And remember good as well as bad points
Noted the plus & minus comments on the kid.He is one the teams shining examples ( like King) showing patriotism & very hard working (as commented by “totnam”). A real pity that the rest cannot put in the 100% that he does.
Don’t you think our coaches need to be blamed for not highlighting the mistakes that he makes ? The rotation policy could help in rectifying this as he will realise that he needs to improve on his mistakes to gain selection.
On the button about the coaches, isn’t it strange that we are bemoaning our strike force for a lack of goals, yet ALL the attack are off key. We say the same about our defence- yet ALL of them are also off key, and then mid fielders then come under pressure, because of the lack of cohesion between attack and defence. As I said on countless occasions surrounding yourself with your mates isn’t going to make you a great manager, great managers appoint good coaches for a few seasons and then replaces them when staleness sets in- just ask Fergie when your sitting down over a glass, Harry!
Hoofing it? Why bother watching his long range passing is excellent … think you need to watch more football
over and out
VARIED OPINION SAYS IT ALL, THE PLAYER IS VERY INCONSISTANT. SOME OF THIS HAS TO BE DUE TO THE LACK OF A REGULAR PARTNER AT THE BACK. I’M CERTAIN IF HAD PLAYED WITH LEDS OR GALLAS FOR A FEW YRS HE WOULD BE VALUED AS HIGHLY AS JAGS OR CAHILL. THE LAD DOES GIVE HIS ALL AND WAS A SNIP AT £3M SO YOU CANT CALL HIM A MISS IMO. IS A GOOD PRO AND AN IMPORTANT MEMBER OF THE SQUAD WHO ACCEPTS HE MAY NOT BE NO.1 WHEN EVERYONES FIT. THERE ISNT MANY DECENT PRO’S LIKE THAT – HIT