Dunk V Evans

[sussex_guy2k2]

What's a message board without opinion? Unsubstantiated? Well he features in the both the following lists of the Premier League's most injury prone players.

http://www.offthepost.info/blog/2017/08/top-10-injury-prone-premier-league-players/

http://www.90min.com/posts/3843967-revealed-the-20-most-injury-prone-players-in-the-premier-league-since-2012

If he were that good, I imagine he would still be at Manchester United who have struggled with Centre Backs since Vidic and Ferdinand, and they wouldn't have flogged him to West Brom. van Gaal sold him and Mourinho had no obvious appetite to bring him back. No doubt they know more about football than most.

Articles which lack substance clearly. As I stated, he's played 30 games or more out of 38 since moving to West Brom, so he's clearly not THAT injury prone anymore.

Realistically, he played a lot of games and won a lot of titles at Man Utd where he spent the majority of his time as third choice behind arguably the best Premier League centre back pairing there's ever been. Sir Alex expected him to be first choice once both had left and was shocked he was sold, let alone for such a low fee, but Van Gaal clearly didn't fancy him. That one Manchester Utd manager who wasn't exactly successful there didn't fancy him and sold him, yet their best ever manager does rate him (as does Pep, who isn't bad at this management malarkey), suggests that he is actually rather good.

Either way, Evans has spent his entire career playing in the top flight, often winning trophies at one of the country's top clubs where he was highly rated by arguably the Premiership's best ever manager. That alone suggests he's actually very very good and indisputably currently a better CB than any of the players that play for us in the same position. That may change in the future, but you're utterly deluded if you think Evans isn't better than our current CBs over a whole season, or if you think he isn't well worth the money considering his past experiences and performances.

 

[Sussexscots]

Articles which lack substance clearly. As I stated, he's played 30 games or more out of 38 since moving to West Brom, so he's clearly not THAT injury prone anymore.

Realistically, he played a lot of games and won a lot of titles at Man Utd where he spent the majority of his time as third choice behind arguably the best Premier League centre back pairing there's ever been. Sir Alex expected him to be first choice once both had left and was shocked he was sold, let alone for such a low fee, but Van Gaal clearly didn't fancy him. That one Manchester Utd manager who wasn't exactly successful there didn't fancy him and sold him, yet their best ever manager does rate him (as does Pep, who isn't bad at this management malarkey), suggests that he is actually rather good.

Either way, Evans has spent his entire career playing in the top flight, often winning trophies at one of the country's top clubs where he was highly rated by arguably the Premiership's best ever manager. That alone suggests he's actually very very good and indisputably currently a better CB than any of the players that play for us in the same position. That may change in the future, but you're utterly deluded if you think Evans isn't better than our current CBs over a whole season, or if you think he isn't well worth the money considering his past experiences and performances.

True enough, he was a successful squad player at Manchester United under Ferguson. I would say he benefited hugely from playing alongside Ferdinand or Vidic because when the time came for him to step up and lead the defensive line for them, he was found wanting. Othetwise vanGaal surely wouldn't have overlooked him in favour of Daley Blind - not a natural CB - to partner Smalling and been prepared to let him leave. Whether van Gall's was right to rate McNair and Blackett ahead of Evans is, of course debatable.

Clearly you rate Evans much more highly than I do. Maybe it says more about the available quality Centre Backs these days that the likes of City would consider a move for him.

Whilst I'm not saying that Dunk is definitively better than Evans, he certainly looked more controlled and composed yesterday. Perhaps it is unfair to make that comparison given that yesterday was Evans' first appearance for WBA this season as he's been out with a Hamstring injury.