I'd rather have Howieson at the World Cup than MDD who has never played consistent senior football. If MDD bosses League Two all season and Howieson gets little to no game time all season then that might change but it is strange that the guy plays one League Two game and all of a sudden is threatening Rufer for his place in the pecking order, yet alone Howieson who very much looks at home in a dominant A-League team when he plays and has far, far more experience than MDD who has done nothing in his career except be a youth player for Fulham.
After his glandular fever recovery Rufer was not at his usual high levels, last season. GF is a nasty one and so his energy levels may just not have been 100%
A year ago many on here were saying drop Bell, Roofs needs to start for the AWs. Now it’s not even questioned he sits a fair way back behind Bell and Stamenic. Those two were super good in June
Rufer needs a good ALM season, and hopefully the Nix are decent enough to help him. Threats yes to his spot from younger players are coming from different directions. Forgot about OPP
Right now Alex R is on the plane to Nth America, but yeah the next 6 months is plenty of time for say a MDD or OPP or other hyphen to just play so well as to nail a spot