Lewis Dunk has played his way back into the England reckoning after outperforming his Premier League rivals.
Brighton centre half Dunk, 31, is pushing hard to be in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the end-of-season Euro qualifiers with Malta and North Macedonia. And he is doing it with better passing stats than Ben White, Kyle Walker and Harry Maguire. The only England centre half with better passing accuracy is Manchester City ’s John Stones with a staggering 93.32 per cent. Dunk, whose accuracy is 90.4 per cent, also outperforms his rivals on long passes, progressive passes and switching play.
The Stats Perform numbers make it clear why Brighton fans have been mystified by Dunk’s four-and-a-half year absence from the England set-up. Dunk’s one and only cap for England came against the USA in a high-profile friendly at Wembley in November 2018 in what was known as the Wayne Rooney farewell game.
He played the whole 90 minutes but has not had a look-in since. Dunk did get a call from Southgate before the next squad in the spring of 2019, telling him that he would not pick him this time, he should concentrate on Brighton’s survival but remained in his thoughts.
However, Dunk has not had another shout despite his impressive consistency for Brighton while others have had call-ups before him. It would seem that Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi’s influence has only strengthened Dunk’s chances because of the football they play at the AmEx and the way they build up from the back.
There might even be a misconception that because of Dunk’s size that he is a stopper when he is actually composed on the ball, good in possession and his stats speak for themselves. Brighton’s on-loan Levi Colwill might stick with the under-21s but the Chelsea prospect is also one for the future and he is relishing playing under De Zerbi too and will surely be in no rush to return to Stamford Bridge.
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Tottenham ’s Eric Dier and Crystal Palace ’s Marc Guehi were in the squad in March and while the latter is in good form, the Spurs man has been struggling. Furthermore, England do face a complicated meet-up as Walker and Stones are among the Manchester City players who will be involved in the Champions League final on June 10 which comes six days before Southgate’s trip to Malta.
England boss Southgate is giving players not involved in the FA Cup final on June 3 an extra week-off before reporting up for duty. But the fact that two City defenders are still playing will surely open the door for another defender and, based on current form, that must surely be Dunk.
Malta might be seen as a straightforward game but North Macedonia are a different proposition. England have never beaten them at home - they have shared two draws - and they also put Italy out of the World Cup qualifiers. Southgate will be determined to make sure England finish the season on a high with no slip-ups allowed.
