The easiest way to show you need more midfield players is to play two players in midfield who can show what will go wrong when you've got no midfield engine or flair. You can also show how toothless we would be without Zohore at the same time - just in case there was any doubt...

With O'Keefe and Halford there we had essentially a doughnut formation i.e. nothing in the middle.

Players who started and did alright tonight were:

Murphy
Coxe (until he ran out of steam after about an hour)
Connolly
Manga (was turned a couple of times but only from trying to make something happen)
Richards

Those who raised question marks over their ability to really contribute to the first team:

Ward (not sure how he can play as the target man - not big or quick enough. He also missed a couple of chances you'd hope he'd at least get on target)
Tomlin - maybe a little desperate to make things happen but basically overcomplicated things too much at times
Kennedy - ineffective tonight
Bogle - eerily reminiscent of Zohore when he didn't know what he was doing, but without the ball control. First match so will give him more time, but not ready to cover Zohore yet it seems.

All the above it's a little too soon to judge them on this match when their midfield didn't contribute at all.

Not good enough any more:

O'Keefe - may as well not have been on the pitch. No presence or drive at all. Too slow in deed and thought
Halford - he may be able to fill in for loads of positions but seems to have lost any finesse in his passing. Too often the ball was thundered way beyond where he must have intended it to go. He's also too slow.


...and so another possible Wembley occasion slips away but it seems no-one really cared so difficult to get too worked up over really.