Lewis Dunk: Brighton’s Imperious Leader Who Just Keeps Getting Better
Once footballers reach their thirties, they are often thought of as having reached their peak level of performance and to have entered the decline phase of their development trajectories.
Despite approaching the age of 32 though later this month and having accumulated 431 first-team appearances in his career, Lewis Dunk only seems to be improving as as a player, something that has been a feature throughout his career.
The improvement witnessed within Dunk’s game has been particularly noticeable ever since he was joined at Brighton by his energetic Italian head coach Roberto De Zerbi in October last year.
De Zerbi arrived at Brighton with a reputation as an uncompromising coach who was renowned for playing an extreme style of possession-based football which placed an importance on the quality of his centre-backs ability on the ball.
This style of football could be recognised to be close to the opposite of the style that Dunk first earned plaudits in the Premier League playing within under Chris Hughton.
During his time under Hughton, Dunk became more renowned for his no-nonsense defending of his own penalty area than his ability on the ball.
The quality of his performances though in the Hughton era earned him a debut England cap against USA in October 2018, as well as the opportunity to lead Brighton out at Wembley in an FA Cup Semi-Final for the first time since 1983.
Following the end of that 2018-19 season though, Brighton opted to replace Hughton with Graham Potter as the club’s hierarchy looked to progress towards a more attractive style of football.
Dunk quickly became a central figure within this move towards a more attractive brand of football, with the shackles of Hughton’s cautious approach to build-up play loosened, allowing him to demonstrate a side to his game on the ball that had been somewhat underutilised in the years prior.
Despite arguably being England’s most consistent centre-back over the three years that Graham Potter remained in charge at Brighton, Dunk failed to add to his tally of international appearances which was a source of frustration for most Brighton fans.
However, when Potter left Brighton in September last year to controversially take on the poisoned chalice that is the Chelsea head coaching gig, Dunk was once again instead focused on having to impress a new manager at club level.
It quickly became apparent that De Zerbi wished to implement the high-risk style of possession-based football that he had cultivated during his time at Saussolo to such amazement at Brighton as well.
If the shackles were loosened under Potter, then they could be described as fully off under De Zerbi.
Dunk though has revelled with the extra responsibilities in possession that he has been given by De Zerbi, taking to his style of football like a duck to water.
(Data Source: Opta via FBref)
Even the Italian has been left in awe at the quality of his captain, labelling him as a “top five defender in the world” in March this year in an interview with Gazzetta Dello Sport just months after arriving on the South Coast.
Some may question De Zerbi’s opinion on that, but what they cannot question is the incredible statistics that Dunk has compiled since the start of last season on the ball.
The 3826 passes that he has completed and the 4541 touches he has taken since the beginning of the 2022-23 season are more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues has managed in that period.
The journey from no-nonsense defender to the world’s statistically leading ball-playing defender is an impressive one that has undoubtedly paid its weight in gold, with Dunk having enjoyed the most successful period of his club career so far.
The highlights of these successes include helping to lead Brighton to their third-ever FA Cup Semi-Final appearance, and to their highest-ever top-flight domestic league finish which resulted in them securing European football at The Amex in the form of the Europa League for the first time in their history.
As a result of Brighton’s excellence and his important contribution towards this, Southgate could no longer ignore the imperious performances of Dunk, calling him up for the first time since he made his debut in 2018 for the summer internationals at the end of the 2022-23 season.
Despite disappointingly missing those international matches through an injury, he has since added to his single cap by starting in wins against Scotland and Australia during the first two international breaks of this season respectively.
The latter of which he was selected as the man of the match, a sign of his growing confidence within the international set-up.
Before heading into that match against Australia though, Dunk had made uncharacteristic errors in possession for Brighton against Marseille and then Liverpool which resulted in his side conceding on each occasion as a result.
This seemingly presented a reason for concern amongst some Brighton fans that he was struggling with his form and the demands of Brighton’s increased fixture list this season.
Like he has done throughout his career though, and likely spurred on by that England performance, Dunk returned to Brighton and bounced back to his best with three imperious performances in eight days in games against Manchester City, Ajax, and Fulham.
Against Manchester City, in an uncharacteristically poor first-half team performance in possession by Brighton, Dunk's defensive intelligence and skill was required to limit Manchester City to two goals as they ran rampantly through Brighton’s midfield.
As a result, Dunk ended the game having accumulated a total of 7 clearances, a total more than double he has managed in any other game this season.
In the second half of this game though he also displayed his incredible composure to first stop Julian Alvarez’s effort headed towards an unguarded Brighton goal, and then calmly thread a pass into Ansu Fati to provide a platform for Brighton to attack from that resulted in Fati scoring to halve Brighton’s deficit.
Although Brighton went on to lose this game 2-1, Dunk was comfortably their best player across the 90 minutes, and arguably across both sets of players.
He followed that performance with a dominant display against Ajax, highlighted by his pass that cut a resilient Ajax deep block open and resulted in Brighton’s opening goal.
Brighton added to this goal early in the second half and with Dunk’s assistance they secured their first win in a European competition.
Against Fulham, Dunk acted more like a quarterback than a centre-back in the first-half, dictating Brighton’s tempo and helping them control proceedings with his precise passing, finishing the half with an astonishing 112/115 passes completed.
Dunk ultimately ended the game having completed 161/169 passes, falling just 13 short of the total that arch rivals Crystal Palace as a team managed against Tottenham last weekend.
What made these performances even more incredible is that Dunk started this triple header against Manchester City at right-centre back in a back four, followed it up against Ajax five days later positioned in the left-centre back role in a back four, and then finally finished it against Fulham as the central centre-back in a back three.
Few defenders in the world could adapt to these changes in position and role, and maintain their performance levels like Dunk has showcased he is able to do so on many an occasion.
It is this rare ability to adapt to the demands placed on him, whether it is the style of football his coach wishes to implement or his role within a given system that is undoubtedly the secret behind his ever-rising trajectory of performance level.
To do so at the highest level requires both a high degree of tactical intelligence, something that he arguably hasn’t been praised enough for in his career.
Having signed a new contract that until at least 2026 in the summer, Brighton look to be in a position to benefit from his undeniable quality for many years to come having already been fortunate enough to do so over the past 13 seasons and counting.
With this in mind, and his performances having shown no signs of decline, there’s a chance that he could one day surpass Ernie Wilson’s record 566 appearances for Brighton if he is able to steer clear of injuries during the latter stages of his career.
That though is still some way off and likely not something on his mind at this moment, with Brighton playing a hectic schedule at the start of this season as a result of their newfound European commitments.
If he does or he does not, when it's all said and done, Lewis Dunk will undoubtedly go down as one of Brighton’s greatest-ever players.
