Lewis Dunk is a rare breed. One of only a handful of professional footballers who will ever be a club’s top scorer in one season, play in goal in another and wear the captain’s armband for the same side. Not simultaneously, of course, yet the man born just half-an-hour from the Amex has achieved almost every footballing feat in his 19 years at Brighton & Hove Albion. Playing in Europe should be next.
Roberto De Zerbi recently called Dunk one of the top-five central defenders in Europe. Football statistics site FBref points to such names as Ruben Dias, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger as the most similar players to the 31-year-old Seagull, highlighting the calibre of player he should be considered among, yet often is not.
Imperturbably sangfroid and a pinpoint passer, Dunk is the crucially cog in Brighton’s masterplan to bait opposition players forward and play through them with ease.
Danish goalkeeper Casper Ankergren joined League One Brighton in 2010-11, Dunk’s first full season in the Seagulls’ first team. Reminiscing about the gangly 18-year-old, Ankergren said: “He was very quiet and didn’t say much, but was obviously very talented. Physically, he was suited very well for the position.
“He made mistakes, like all young players do. I remember one time he overslept when we were doing pre-season in Portugal and arrived late for training, but he didn’t do it again. On the pitch, he’d never make the same mistake twice.”
Originally a striker who graduated the academy as a central midfielder, concerns around Dunk’s composure and defensive nous lingered throughout his early career. These apprehensions were ossified during a 6-1 FA Cup defeat at Liverpool in February 2012.
Facing his own goal and attempting clear a Luis Suarez cross, 20-year-old Dunk chested the ball, before taking a heavy touch off his knee which ricocheted goalbound. His desperate, acrobatic failure to clear his own miskick off the goal-line took instant hold in Brighton lore, brought up repeatedly when he suffered from a slew of cheap yellow cards and high-pressure dismissals in the Championship.
Clearly a physically gifted centre-back from a young age, the mental side of his game has sometimes left room for improvement. After Premier League promotion, he worked with a psychologist, then-manager Chris Hughton and his father, local non-league journeyman Mark, to understand the trigger points for his rash streak.
Dunk is only the 10th player to make over 400 Brighton appearances and has missed just 18 of the club’s Premier League games.
Yet he has collected just one England cap, from a 3-0 friendly victory over USA, in an era where Ben Godfrey, Chris Smalling, Joe Gomez, Michael Keane and Tyrone Mings have all earned more. Ankergren admits to a similar bemusement to the rest of us at that fact.
However impressive it may be, championing his longevity and reliability may feed into preconceptions which some suggest have limited his England career. The one-club man trope supports the idea his greatest assets are his loyalty and leadership, instead of his supreme physical and technical skill.
Lanky, leggy – almost clumsy – Dunk superficially fits the part as a traditional English centre-back, a man of grit rather than grace. Not quite blessed with the feline elegance of Virgil van Dijk or John Stones, he more visually resembles a Harry Maguire.
Yet Dunk is a defender unburdened by superfluous frills or flourishes; he simply does every part of his job exceptionally well. In 2017-18, Brighton’s first Premier League season, he ranked ninth for most clearances made as part of Hughton’s low-block defence. Five years on, he leads the top-flight for both passes (3,009) and touches (3,307) this season, ahead of Rodri, Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
“He hasn’t really got any weaknesses,” Ankergren added. “He’s physical, he’s good in the air, he’s really good on the ball, he’s fairly fast, he can read the game well, he can hit diagonals, he can play with both feet. He doesn’t often have injuries, he’s very reliable, he’s a really good leader. He’s the whole package.”
It is a minor tragedy that Dunk joined Bristol City on loan for 28 days in late 2013, the only three club appearances of his career not for his hometown club. It denies him the chance to be a true modern footballing unicorn, the purest of one-club men.
Dunk leading Brighton into Europe would provide him with the platform his skillset has always deserved. Maybe continental opponents will appreciate his extraordinary gifts in a way Gareth Southgate has failed to.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/cTUWBXS
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