[Football] Lewis Dunk

[maglers]

This guy deserves his own appreciation thread. Absolutely ****ing class.

I grew up with absolute dogshit playing for us. I grew up remembering Mark Morris - later believing Darren Carr would lead us to success. I saw a friendly at Crawley’s (new) ground where they ran out of balls - seriously - because our centre halves whacked so many out of the ground. There was a delay while they sourced the balls.

Then I remember thinking Danny Cullip was Premier League class because he was absolutely bossing Division 3 and could CONTROL and PASS the ball at Withers.

I remember having a guy a million miles away from the first team at Man Utd (on loan) called Paul McShane. I remember everyone raving he was the best centre back we’d had since Lawrenson, as we were haplessly relegated from the Championship on a shoestring budget.

Now we’re in the ****ing actual PL in 2018 and have a Brightonian centre half more than holding his own in the PL. a guy who went to BHASVIC (like me) who can play 70 yard cross field passes and is being touted for an England call up.

This is ****ing dreamland

Didn’t he go to Varndean?

 

[Mellotron]

Best player on the pitch for periods of the game last night. Genuinely. Looks so at home at that standard now.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

He's just a Rolls Royce of a defender. He's got the lot. Strength, antictipation, courage, passing, blocking, intelligence, bringing the ball out and using it, the odd Hollywood pass. Its been a privilege watching him grow into the supreme centreback he has become.

And yet that Palace wankface fishlips still see's fit to select Alfie f-ing MAWSON ahead of him. Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable.

Mawson is a quality player - been on the verge of the England squad for the last few.

I imagine Dunk is next in

 

[Weststander]

Didn’t he go to Varndean?

Agree. Shirley Dunk didn’t attend Bhasvic, as he was full time with the Albion ages 16 to 18

 

[turienzo's lovechild]

Agree. Shirley Dunk didn’t attend Bhasvic, as he was full time with the Albion ages 16 to 18

When I was at Bhasvic there were Albion youngsters there as well- the club sent them there to get a bit of an education I guess. This was the Jake Robinson kinda era so slightly before Dunk came through


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[amexer]

All this praise but why didnt he mark for first goal

 

[fly high]

All this praise but why didnt he mark for first goal

Would say he lost his player for both goals, perhaps GS sees a slight weakness which is why he didn't pick him.ú

 

[erkan]

All this praise but why didnt he mark for first goal

I watched the game with a very experienced pro football coach/scout and he attached no blame to Dunk when I asked him about it. Apparently that combination of ball delivery and forward movement is pretty much impossible to defend without just abandoning the offside line and sitting on top of your keeper.

He went on to state the fairly obvious that Dunk is a quite brilliant player in most aspects of his game - with pace added he would be at a Champions League club.

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[Questions]

Would say he lost his player for both goals, perhaps GS sees a slight weakness which is why he didn't pick him.ú

A centre half who loses his man as regularly as Dunk does is unlikely to figure in the national side. He’s a wonderful player who has improved no end but his failure - and to be honest it’s Brightons as much as him - to defend corners and set pieces will cost him I think.

I think I should add that I don’t watch the Cahills and the Stones of this world with the same intentness so feel free to pile in.

 

[portslade seagull]

All this praise but why didnt he mark for first goal

My take on it as well. Lost Lukaku and outnumbered for the 2nd. Where were the others

 

[BensGrandad]

Showed last night why the big clubs and Southgate have shunned him as he had a reasonably good al round game but made 2 mistakes and they scored 2 goals.

 

[Stat Brother]

Spurs fan talking down the Albion...AGAIN.

 

[BensGrandad]

My take on it as well. Lost Lukaku and outnumbered for the 2nd. Where were the others

Why the others, irrespective of numbers as only one person headed it but is was HIS MAJOR JOB to win those headers and he failed so his fault both goals.

 

[BensGrandad]

Spurs fan talking down the Albion...AGAIN.

Where and who is that?

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Would say he lost his player for both goals, perhaps GS sees a slight weakness which is why he didn't pick him.ú

Clearly the one big flaw in Dunk's very good game at the moment.
Sadly, the same goes for Duffy as well. They are two big guys and are good headers of the ball and should be sticking like glue to the good headers in the opposition. But over and over again, this season, they keep losing their men in the box and it costs us dear. Sure it was a good ball whipped in by Matic but Dunk should never have let Lukaku get goalside of him. The second goal was an embarrassment. Dunk was caught out of position again and fell over and Duffy, nowhere near the back post was seen chasing the header back into an unguarded net!!! United couldn't believe their luck. Just overcrowd the far post, against small players like Suttner and Matic gets a simple, free header, whilst our two centre backs are like headless chickens.
What the hell is going on at the training ground!!! Time and again this season, teams are scoring headers against us, either from set pieces or from the quick ball whipped in and our centre backs are in no-mans land and not challenging. Its totally different in open play. We are covering, blocking and making life difficult for the opposition. United just waited patiently, twice, to pick us off, from balls whipped in. Simple stuff. They knew our weakness, like everybody else. The list of teams doing the same just goes on and on. Twice a poor WBA did it. Twice an ordinary Huddersfield did it. Everton, Spurs, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leicester etc all did it but nothing seems to change.
Nobody seems to be able to work out whether we are man-marking or zonal marking. Whatever it is, it ain't working and for all our decent approach play last night, once again it showed where we are vulnerable.
Dunk is clearly talented but for all his bravery, his ball carrying and his distribution assets, he will ultimately be judged in how he helps to control and dominate his own penalty area. Like good strikers, centre backs have to have good positional sense. They need to be aware of everything around them. Almost to second guess where the striker will be and where the danger will be. Too many players this season are being allowed a free rein against two big centre halves. We constantly see Dunk and Duffy grabbing desperately at shirts to try and regain position, as quick movement finds them out. Its a big learning curve at this level, as the quality of delivery is so much better and varied. But learn they have to, else savvy teams will continue to exploit.
Time will tell, whether Duffy is the right partner for Dunk. I have my doubts. I believe Duffy's lack of mobility means that Dunk spends too
much time covering for him and this causes uncertainty in the box. Personally, I believe that having Goldson alongside him, will help Dunk more. Goldson is more agile and has better positional sense than Duffy. Our play from the back would be more fluid and I firmly believe there would be more certainty in our own box.

 

[Fred Oliver - Legend]

Wonder if he has been practicing his scouse accent for next season..

 

[tigertim68]

I thought he could of done better for both goals

 

[Giraffe]

Is there a greater site than Dunk striding forward with the ball? Love it love it love it.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

A centre half who loses his man as regularly as Dunk does is unlikely to figure in the national side. He’s a wonderful player who has improved no end but his failure - and to be honest it’s Brightons as much as him - to defend corners and set pieces will cost him I think.

I think I should add that I don’t watch the Cahills and the Stones of this world with the same intentness so feel free to pile in.

The stats don't lie.
We concede far more goals from set pieces than any other side. Every side in the PL is trying to whip quick balls in. They all know that they are difficult to defend. So defenders are constantly under pressure to find ways to keep the opposition out. We all know we have been a bit naive in that respect this season but we want to see small signs of improvement. We have a relatively settled back line but we keep conceding from these situations. Nothing seem to be changing. We assume defence duties are being drilled into players on the training ground but the message doesn't seem to be getting through. So its either the coaching staff or the players.

 

[BensGrandad]

That is a very good post and to the point hence my suggestion on the Trollop Nevin thread that perhaps we need to bring in a specialist ex CB to coach them like Keown Adams Terry or Mabbutt or similar and perhaps we are missing Calderwood more than many like to admit. I remember reading once a quote by Adams under Graham that if they scotred a goal they expected to get 1 point and if they scored 2 they expected to win.