Lewis Dunk England debut & Groß return set to inspire out-of-form Albion to victory?
The big news of the international break — for Brighton fans at least — was Lewis Dunk making his England debut, instigating a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory over the USA. The occasion was laid out to pay testimony to Wayne Rooney for his fantastic 120-appearance international Three Lions’ career, however, Lewis Dunk, Jadon Sancho and Callum Wilson were the main attractions as they all made their first ever starts for their country.
The new lads all played a key part in the victory with Sancho impressing with his abundance of pace and flair, Wilson finishing clinically for England’s third goal and Dunk rounding off the match with a 7.54 match rating according to whoscored.com.
Dunk, though not directly having an impact on the goals scored, was much of an unsung hero during the match, as proved by his impressive statistics. Compared to his team-mates, Dunk made the most clearances with 5, blocked the most shots with 5 and made the third most interceptions with 2. Only two players (Keane & Alexander-Arnold) made more passes (79) than him on the night and nobody could match his impressive passing accuracy with a 96.2% success rate maintained.
The centre-back became only the third Sussex-born post-war England international and was the fourth man to appear for England while an Albion player and the first since Steve Foster in 1982.
Brighton boss Chris Hughton will hope that Dunk’s England debut will inspire the rest of his players to their first victory since a 1-0 three-point snatch over Wolves on the final weekend of October as his side face Leicester City on Saturday afternoon.
The re-inclusion of Pascal Groß into the starting eleven seems imminent as he is set to return to action for the first time since a 2-2 draw against Fulham back in game-week four. This will add massively to the side’s attacking threat against what is quite an experienced back four of Leicester City at current.
Harry Maguire is out of contention for this fixture as a result of a knee injury and midfield pairing Matty James and Daniel Amartey remain side-lined due to a lack of match fitness. The players that Foxes’ boss Claude Puel will be most concerned about, though, is the slight knocks to Rachid Ghezzal, Jamie Vardy and James Maddison.
Ghezzal has been a brilliant impact substitute for Leicester since his arrival from AS Monaco, scoring once in nine appearances and causing problems for opposition defenders’ fatigued legs with his pace and flair and as a result will be a big miss for Puel.
Jamie Vardy being – if certain reports are correct – unavailable for Saturday’s fixture will mean for a struggle on the goal front for Leicester. The Englishman has been the Foxes’ top scorer for the past three seasons, proving his clinical nature when up against some of the world’s best goalkeepers in the Champions League (2016/17 season) and the likes of David de Gea and Thibaut Courtois in the Premier League.
James Maddison has been extremely impressive since arriving from Norwich City, making a direct involvement in 5 goals this term (3 goals, 2 assists) and a very impressive pass success rate of 84.4%. Though he may be fit enough to appear off the bench, the lack of a fully-fit Maddison will be a presence that is almost impossible to replace given his extraordinary creative ability. He will arguably be the most fundamental miss of the bunch.
The replacements for these players aren’t as lacklustre as you may expect, though. The versatility of some of the players and the depth of squad that Puel has implemented into the Leicester side is remarkable. The likes of Demarai Gray, Kelechi Iheanacho and Shinji Okazaki have all been waiting in the wings for a circumstance just like this one.
Gray and Iheanacho especially will be a danger that Brighton will not being looking forward to face. The ex-Manchester City forward Iheanacho has had some first-team action already this season, starting seven games, scoring once and assisting three times in the process. He will look to impress again on Saturday afternoon as he hopes to convince Puel to award him with a place in the starting eleven on a consistent basis.
Gray in particular will be a threat for the Albion defence due to his ability to cut inside, then outside, then back in, back out, and so on. He is such an unpredictable winger – a nightmare in many senses. Gray will likely start on the left hand-side, up against whoever Chris Hughton selects as his right-back. If Gaetan Bong retains his place in the eleven, it could be catastrophic, in my opinion. Full of mistakes, Bong has been far from impressive this season and many wonder how he has remained firmly in the Brighton side. Bernardo – the supposed ‘competition’ for Bong – has barely featured this season and judging by the fact he has more pace, more experience at a top level (Bundesliga and European competition with RB Leipzig) and more ability (most would say) than his Cameroonian team-mate, he should start on Saturday.
Another player who has made a few mistakes this season – though most avoid stating this – is Lewis Dunk. Dunk has been consistently brilliant in defence and had an extremely positive influence on Brighton’s back-to-back-to-back victories in October, however, at times has been a little disordered with his distribution. Away at Everton, for example, Dunk made a horror back pass that put Richarlison through on goal. Richarlison finished without a trickle of mercy. Considering Leicester are such a clinical side in an attacking sense – as proved by their incredible shot-to-goal ratio of 9 – Dunk must be cautious with his passing and his dribbling out of the back. You simply cannot give the ball away to those Leicester forwards without punishment. Likewise, if the Leicester players make any mistakes and are sloppy around their back four with distribution, Brighton will punish.
Brighton’s Jürgen Locadia has spoken with the Dutch media recently emphasising his urge to be given a chance by his manager: “[I want to have] the chance to show what I’m worth.”
Getting into the starting eleven will be extremely difficult for Locadia, though, as Glenn Murray is still firing consistently up front. Romanian international Florin Andone is also arguably ahead of Locadia in Hughton’s mind in terms of tactical selection so he has made a big ask. But, who knows, Hughton may like Locadia’s optimism and hand him the chance he wants to “show what [he’s] worth.”
Whether Locadia gets his chance or not, or whether Pascal Groß is fit enough to start, likewise with Vardy, Maddison, Ghezzal – it is going to be a very tight match-up between the two sides on Saturday afternoon. Both managers will be desperate to gain three points and therefore it could be quite an exciting fixture. Who will win? We will just have to wait and see…
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