WHZ View: Chance for Dawson v woeful Willian – West Ham v Wolves head to head
Craig Dawson will be looking to put his recent performances behind him this evening as West Ham face off with Wolves in the Premier League.
The 30-year-old made an excellent start to life in east London. He helped keep four clean sheets in his first four Hammers matches, becoming the first player to do so in our history.
Dawson was going from strength to strength at the heart of our defence. He did, however, make a couple of costly errors in our recent matches. The defender scored own goals against Manchester United and Arsenal in back-to-back clashes, costing us four points in total.
Against Wolves this evening he has a chance to find his form again. He’ll go toe-to-toe with one of the worst-performing strikers in the top-flight. Willian Jose joined Wolves on loan in January from Real Sociedad.
In 688 minutes of Premier League football, the Spaniard is yet to score or provide an assist [WyScout]. He’s had just seven attempts at goal in nine appearances and is hardly filling the void left by Raul Jimenez.
The closer you look the more concerning it reads for Wolves. Jose has had one shot in his last four games, and it was off target. One shot in 321 minutes isn’t going to cut it in this league.
The loanee hasn’t scored a league goal since December 16. He bagged a consolation strike for Sociedad against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Jose has a strong record in Spain but looks shot of all confidence as he still adapts to the English game.
Jose has won just 38.5% of aerial duels and 31.6% of duels overall. This should play into the hands of Dawson. He’s something of a veteran of English football, an old school no-nonsense defender who loves to tackle and win headers. He’ll be rubbing his hands at the thought of facing off later.
Despite his errors in our last two games, Dawson has still done well at shutting out attacking threats. Against Arsenal and United, he won 72.73% of his aerial duels and 65.22 of duels overall. He’s still performing to a high level, he just needs to stop scoring past Lukasz Fabianski.
The two-week break will have done him a lot of good, time to rest and get over his bloopers. He has held down the backline emphatically since we lost Angelo Ogbonna.
Dawson stopped Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero from having any lasting impact against us not long ago. Tonight is a chance for him to find this kind of form again, and lead us to new heights in the race for Europe.
In other West Ham news, much like Jesse Lingard, could this former England international be able to kick-start his career with the Hammers?