Hackney is a useful player, but he is limited when defending. His instincts are first to attack. More like the Hoddle of the 1980s.
Time is catching up with Howson.
I would try O'Brien more centrally specifically to defend. Maybe use Howson as shield for the centre halves
The whole team has to defend when the opposition have the ball and be much more alert to danger, surprised how niave we looked in the highlights when defending. Look how quickly Blackburn had 7 players defending when we attacked, but when they attacked the pitch looked much bigger, because we seemed to have less bodies around.