2018/19 Michael Keane

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Cool_Blue said:
Bring Duffy home and bring Dunk with him, double swoop. Not great footballers but both look ok to me whenever I see Brighton. Proper defenders, and both with an eye for a goal from set pieces. No language barrier and no ‘getting to know each other’ required. Ask yourself who you’d rather be up against if you were a Prem forward, ‘5 England caps’ Keane or one of these two? Thought so.

I’m standing by for the usual ‘they’re not good enough for where we want to be’.........but where is that, top 4 presumably? At the moment, where we want to be and where we’re actually headed are two very different places unless Marco can get a grip.
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I hear that Williams Fellow at Swansea is a good defender.....
 

Cool_Blue said:
Bring Duffy home and bring Dunk with him, double swoop. Not great footballers but both look ok to me whenever I see Brighton. Proper defenders, and both with an eye for a goal from set pieces. No language barrier and no ‘getting to know each other’ required. Ask yourself who you’d rather be up against if you were a Prem forward, ‘5 England caps’ Keane or one of these two? Thought so.

I’m standing by for the usual ‘they’re not good enough for where we want to be’.........but where is that, top 4 presumably? At the moment, where we want to be and where we’re actually headed are two very different places unless Marco can get a grip.
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Duffy and Dunk are both good centre backs in Brighton's system.

Michael Keane was a very good centre back in Burnley's system.

The key with with getting the best out of defenders is the system they are employed in. The 3 players above will alll excel in a defence that plays a deeper line with full backs that hardly cross the halfway line and with a midfield in front of them that packs the middle and forces teams wide. In essence force teams to cross against you a lot and use your organisation and 2 grocks at centre back to clear stuff and head things out.

Under Silva, the defensive line in higher than what Brighton or Burnley play. There's more licence for the the ful backs to go forward. There's less protection for the centre backs. They are also forced to worry more about the space behind them. Poor positioning or a lack of pace will be exploited more readily in Silva's defensive system than Hughton's or Dyche's.

One alternative is to change the defensive line. Play deeper and play to your centre backs strengths. Problem is that weakens other parts of team. You negate the ability of the full backs to get forward. You bring Gomes 10 yards closer to your own goal when you want him to be pulling the strings closer to the opposition goal. Same with Sigurdsson.

Defending deeper forces the team to play on the counter attack or look for goals off set pieces. If you are going to play counter attacking football you also need to play a centre forward who has great hold up play. That allows you to relive the pressure, gain territorial advantage and spring counter attacks with players joining the play. That completely changes the way we play and changes the way we brought Silva in to play.

I've gone round the houses to provide my main point. Duffy and Dunk aren't the answer. 1 of them might work if they were next to a Rolls Royce centre back who had covering pace etc.. The 2 of them together in this system would be the same car crash as Michale Keane. A square peg in a round hole.
 

I think Keane would be ok as a middle centre back in a 3. Problem is I also said this about Mina so if the system changed it would be a straight choice between the 2. If he stays in a 4 he needs someone with pace alongside but better awareness and less mistakes than Zouma. Ultimately I think he is competing with Mina rather than complimentry.
 

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