I've just watched the whole game back focusing on Kieran's performance.
He had 83 touches during the game.
He attempted 66 passes with a 91% completion ratio. There was a high percentage of forward passes and a number of sweeping long range passes to the wing where he switched play effectively. But the most noticeable thing was how quickly he moved the ball on.
He made 9 crosses during the game (mostly from set pieces) and overall created 6 chances for his team mates.
He made 4 interceptions and 5 tackles during the game.
He only carried the ball 3 times which was disappointing. He lost the ball once and was fouled the other 2 times, one of which resulted in the first goal.
He also only had 1 shot on goal and we've all seen the result of that.
Without the ball I thought he worked very hard. He closed down space well when the opposition were in possession, and covered for both full backs when they went forward. He also worked hard making himself available to pass to when the ball went out to either full back giving them an outlet if they couldn't move the ball forward.
Overall, it was a very high quality but understated performance by Dowell's standards. I believe the stats prove that he was heavily involved in the game, but I thought he played far too deep for my liking. Whilst this was key to our keeping possession and moving it on quickly, he didn't get forward anywhere near enough for a player of his quality, and when he did we saw what happened.
Whilst I'd like to see us try him in a deeper role, I'd prefer to see him play alongside a proper DM with him given more licence to get forward in support of the forwards. Not as a number 10, but more box to box. It's probably too much of a risk to start him there in league games at the moment and, barring another injury crisis, I can't see Silva doing that. But I'd like to see him introduced from the bench when we're in control of games and see how he does. We have a very talented lad here and we need to at least try and integrate him into the team if possible.